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THE JUDGE 



American Dramatists Series 

THE JUDGE 

A Play in Four Acts 

LOUIS JAMES BLOCK 




BOSTON: THE GORHAM PRESS 

THE COPP CLARK CO., LIMITED, TORONTO 



Copyrifllt, 19x5, by Louis James Block 



All Rights Reserved 






Thi GtoRHAM Press, Bostok, U. S. A. 



MAY 26 1915 
©CI,D 40774 



To 
K!arl Emil Franzos 

The illustrious Austrian Novelist, 

immortal now in life as in memory, 

this book is inscribed with profound 

regard and reverence 



THE JUDGE 



PERSONS OF THE DRAMA 

Baron Von Sendlingenj The Judge. 
Minister of Justice. 

George Berger, Von Sendlingens Friend, 
Von Werner, A Judge. 
Dernegg, Public Prosecutor. 
Count Henry Riesner. 
John Novyrok, A Workman. 
Dr. Rohn. 

Franz J An Old Servant. 
Victorine Lippert. 

Countess Riesner, Mother of Count Henry. 
Brigitta, Von Sendlingens Housekeeper. 
Marianna Brandes, Companion of the Countess, 
Workmen. Guards. 

Scene. — A manufacturing Town in Northeast- 
ern Austria. Time, November, 1852, to March, 
1853. 



THE JUDGE 

ACT I 

Scene. — The library of Von Sendlingen. Bri- 
g'ttta and Franz. 

Franz 
So — that business is over. The noise of the work- 
ing men will now come to a stop. There is no one 
in whom they believe as in the Baron, and he will 
have some word for them of gladness and good 
cheer. 

Brigitta 
I am afraid that even he will have much difficulty 
in pacifying the men, so enraged are they, and so 
filled with a sense of wrong at the hardships heaped 
upon them. Besides there is that other terrible busi- 
ness awaiting him. 

Franz 
You mean Victorine Lippert? 

Brigitta 
Yes. It is the sort of thing he dislikes to deal 
with. 

Franz 
Poof child — so young — and such a fate! Now- 
adays everything goes wrong, the children are all 
brought up wrong, and we must hear of these 
dreadful things! The whole world is upside down, 
and the workingman is ready to declare himself 
emperor. Ah! A knock! 

(Goes out and returns with Berger.) 

7 



8 THE JUDGE 

Berger 

Good morning, Brigitta. Is it not time that your 
master has arrived? The train is somewhat late, I 
believe. 

Brigitta 

Perhaps he has been detained on the way. He 
has many little confidences with people all over the 
town and one of them may be keeping him. 

Berger 

Doubtless that is the case. I will just sit down 
and remain until he comes. 

Brigitta 
You will excuse me, Mr. Berger; I have the 
usual morning duties to look after. (Passes out.) 

Berger 
{As if to himself.) I must see him about that 
unhappy woman, who has aroused every feeling of 
pity in me. 

Franz 

Is it the Lippert woman that you are speaking 
of, sir? 

Berger 

Yes — ^poor child. I wish that it were anyone else 
than Von Werner who is to preside at the examina- 
tion. Justice has never worn a stranger face than 
in him. He firmly believes that the right can be 
put down on paper in w^ords and sentences, and 
indeed that it has already been done beyond change 
or cavil. A law, you know, dear Franz, is a law, 
though a very foolish set of men very foolishly may 
have made it, and a folly once securely set forth in 
black and white c^n never, never, be altered for the 
better. 



ACT I 9 

Franz 
You are very good, Mr. Berger, to talk in this 
way to an ignorant man like me, but I haven't, 
thank God, lived so long under the shadow 
of justice without learning something. Besides 
we poor folks are often ground down by 
hard times and griefs, and we are glad to see any 
way out of troubles and learn to forgive where men 
who have never felt the shoe pinch think it is best 
to be strict — strict — very strict. 

Berger 
It's not always an easy thing to decide. Some- 
times it seems that justice were better served by 
holding the reins less tight. How long it is since 
Von Sendlingen has been away! Ah, good friend, 
I grudge every hour that he is not here, and we need 
him all the time — that pedant, Von Werner — you 
are not listening to what I am saying, Franz? 

Franz 
I forget a good deal. I am getting along in 
years, and my memory is not what it was when you, 
a young man just beginning your work as a lawyer, 
found me already an old servant in this house. 
That knocker has been going all the morning! 
{Passes out and then returns with Von Werner and 
Dernegg. The former places a package of docu- 
ments on the table. Franz leaves the room. The 
gentlemen exchange greetings. Von Werner is 
dressed with extreme precision and is pompous and 
affected in his manners.) 

Berger 
We shall be the first to welcome the Judge on his 
return, excepting those who appear to have claimed 



lo THE JUDGE 

his thoughts before ourselves. 

Von Werner 

You have not been informed of the happy cir- 
cumstances which import so much both to Baron 
Von Sendlingen and myself? I shall receive my 
due recognition. I have been second altogether too 
long. I now appear in my true light. I am the 
Master here. 

Berger 

You have, indeed, the advantage of me. 

Von Werner 
In consequence of the fortunate termination of 
the labor difficulties brought about by the exertions 
of myself with some assistance from our friend, 
and the important services which I have rendered 
the ministry in the matter of needed law reforms, 
Von Sendlingen receives preferment which I do not 
grudge him. He will take a position as a Superior 
Judge, and the minister gives me the place which 
has long been mine as his successor. The news 
has not yet been made public, the more's the pity, 
but it will be at once on the return of the Baron. 
{He gives a low and peculiar chuckle, rises and 
rubs his hands together and walks haughtily up and 
down the room.) 

Dernegg 

My congratulations you have already received; 
they are tempered only by my sense of loss in the 
departure of Von Sendlingen, but I hope you found 
them profound enough for your acceptance. 

Berger 

{Stiffly, with ill-concealed scorn.) The interests 
of our city have always been an affair of serious 



ACT I II 

consideration with the ministry of justice, and they 
have recognized the fact that rigorous uprightness 
and wide acquaintance with our difficult situation 
were imperatively required. You are a learned, 
very learned man. 

Fon Werner 
I shall hardly walk in the footsteps of my prede- 
cessor. I see above and beyond him. I shall make 
the necessary changes called for by a higher in- 
telligence. With the proletariat that seethes in 
this manufacturing town so viciously, and some- 
times shows its teeth snarlingly at constituted au- 
thority, I shall be firm, startlingly firm. What wt; 
need nowadays is reason, pure, unflinching reason, 
which I know I possess. {Chuckles and rubs his 
hands as above, takes a few strides, then looks down 
on the gentlemen with a broad and blatant smile.) 

Berger 
The weak and suffering will no doubt find at 
your hands that consideration which they so shame- 
fully crave. 

Dernegg 
Shamefully? Quite right. {Laughs lightly.) 

Von Werner 

Right, indeed. {Stares and smiles.) Shame- 
fully is just the word. 

{They turn at a noise behind them and see Franz 
shaking hands with Von Sendlingen, who is quite 
overjoyed to be at home again.) 

Franz 
There you are! How it gladdens my old heart! 
What a dull time we have had without you ! Every 
day we have looked over as many papers as wc 



tt THE JUDGE 

could get, to see if your name was in any one of 
them and to find out what you were doing! And 
when your letters came, how we read them over 
and over, and you were so good as to write us often. 
We have saved them up! Now I must go and tell 
Brigitta! 

Fon Sendlingen 

Not just yet, my dear Franz. In a little while. 
Let me see my good friends here first. So-so! 
(Shakes with both hands and Franz goes out.) 
Berger, — George, — I have a good deal to tell you. 
It is a pleasure to see you, Mr. Dernegg, and my 
honorable intelligent successor. I am afraid, how- 
ever, that I am hardly ready to go. I have become 
wedded to my labors here and I may ask the govern- 
ment to exchange the appointment and let you take 
the higher one. {Von Werner smiles and chuckles 
and rubs his hands.) But be seated. Are there 
any special matters you wish to bring to me requir- 
ing consideration? 

{He removes his overcoat and they all gather 
around the table.) 

Von Werner 

All reports are ready for your inspection. The 
reading should begin at once. We have brought 
them for that purpose. I never delay. I am prompt 
to the minute. We must always work. {He points 
to the documents on the table; Von Sendlingen 
takes them up and begins looking at them.) 

Berger 

{With some asperity.) It is not so immediate. 
I pray you pardon me, but let us have a few 
minutes' conversation. It has been many weeks since 



ACT I 13 

we have had the privilege of hearing the Baron's 
voice. 

Von Werner 
There is one case that calls for instant action, 
which I would give it. {Pauses and arranges his 
hair.) The preliminary hearing is set for the day 
after tomorrow, and I, as usual, intended to take 
upon myself the presiding over it. You no doubt 
will, as usual, agree with me. 

D em egg 
You refer to that fearful case of the young wo- 
man murdering her newborn child. Unhappy, half- 
crazed creature! 

Von Werner 
As no one cared to defend her, I gave that duty 
to Mr. Berger. You will approve of him. {With 
condescension.) 

Von Sendlingen 
Yes, indeed. The murder of her own child, you 
say ? The circumstances leading to such an act must 
be terrible, indeed. 

Von Werner 
The record is here, Baron, ready as usual. {Wide 
smile. Von Sendlingen takes the paper handed to 
him, holds it unopened and seems to be losing him- 
self in thought.) 

Von Werner 
{Continues.) The crime has grown singularly 
frequent of late ov/ing to the laxity of Judges. 
{Bridles and plays with cravat.) One surely must 
expect such fearful exemplifications of the madness 
which has come upon mankind, the lower mankind, 
of course. The revolutionary sentiment spread 



H THE JUDGE 

broadcast through books, written by persons with- 
out insight and therefore wholly destitute of scienti- 
fic worth, and repeated in the shameless public 
prints without such restrictions as I would place, 
have weakened all bonds. The family is no longer 
considered, and the state itself is in danger. Such 
are my matured sentiments. 

Von Sendlingen 
You appear to have reason on your side. 

Berger 
There are always alleviating circumstances, and 
the law must not offend by becoming too legal. 

Dernegg 
You assuredly are the right lawyer for this wo- 
man. It must be admitted, however, that the best 
intents of justice are frequently served by leaning 
towards the side of mercy. 

Von Werner 
Yet within a comparatively brief period the num- 
ber of crimes of this very sort has doubled. Even 
I have been lenient ; I can point to no instance of the 
capital penalty for this most heinous crime in the 
past dozen years. {Coughs and walks about.) 

Von Sendlingen 
There will be an early change in that respect. 
The Minister of Justice holds to your opinion, and 
he will recommend a more stringent enforcement 
of the law. An unfortunate decision in my opinion. 
The roots of this social disease strike deeper than 
we deem and are not to be extirpated by the severest 
of punishments. In the disturbed condition of the 
times, the dark uncertainties hovering over so many, 
in the harshness belonging to all transition, violent 



ACT I 15 

or half-suppressed, lies the origin of this increase 
of crime. The strong hand of the executive is not 
so much required as the schoolmaster and the sincere 
upholder of religion. 

Von Werner 

{With owlish solemnity.) The circumstances 
in the present case are of the most repellant char- 
acter, and we can be of service to the general weal 
by beginning the salutary punishment of the crime 
here. (Stares.) 

Dernegg 

The affair has not been probed to the bottom. 
The most important witness in this case is far from 
unassailable. 

Berger 

The woman is struck dumb by the fate which has 
overtaken her. She is buried in a kind of stupor 
from which nothing arouses her. She refuses all 
defense, and I shall act in her behalf entirely against 
her will. I fully believe, however, that we are far 
from a sufficient understanding of the case. 

Fon Sendlingen 

My confidence in you, Von Werner, in the clear- 
ness of your understanding, in your goodness, is com- 
plete. At the same time, due regard must be had 
to all aspects of the affair. 

{His face is thoughtful and serene as he opens 
the document in his hand. He reads over the brief 
writing there, once, twice, three times. Then he 
gives forth a dull, hoarse, choking cry, an utterance 
of deadly fear. His face whitens visibly, his features 
assume a look of horror, the eyes stare with a mean- 
ingless intensity on the paper.) 



t6 THE JUDGE 

Von Werner 
Great God! Are you ill? Do you know this 
creature, this infamous murderess? 

Berger 
Victor — my dear friend — ^water there — help. 

Von Sendlingen 

It is nothing — pardon me — you know that with 
increasing years my heart trouble has grown de- 
cidedly worse. The life in Vienna, too, during 
these past weeks, so different from the quiet regu- 
larity to which I am accustomed, has been far from 
good for me. I am no longer what I was. It will 
not last many years now — perhaps it will only be a 
few months or days — ha! ha! I have kept it as still 
as I could. 

Von Werner 

That is so, indeed. I have been surprised at 
your vigor, so unusual in my experience. Shall we 
not send for your physician? {With exaggerated 
solicitude. ) 

Berger 

Yes, Victor, let me go at once. This business 
is not pressing; it can be postponed. 

Von Sendlingen 
The examination is set for the day after tomor- 
row; it can be held here in my room; ^nd yet — 
{He breaks ojf as if he were conscious that he is 
making revelations which it were best to leave un- 
said. Then he proceeds.) I must, indeed, ask the 
privilege of deferring the looking over of these 
papers for a half-hour, or say an hour. By that 
time I shall be thoroughly restored. Good morn- 
ing, for the present, my friends. George, you will 



ACT I 17 

remain with me. 

Fon Werner 
(To Dernegg as they are leaving.) His behavior 
is very strange. (Coughs.) We surely cannot 
attribute the attack to anything in these dull re- 
ports. Heart disease has its freaks and vv^hlm- 
sicalities, so to speak, quite unforseeable, quite un- 
accountable. (Looks back with a sort of sympathe- 
tic grimace.) 

Fon Sendlingen 

Death, death, and at my hands! Can I let it 
reach that conclusion? Her blood will cry out 
against me and my sin! Yet what am I to do? Is 
any help possible? (He reads from the paper.) 
"Victorine Lippert, Born 25 Jan. 1834, at Raudltz. 
Governess. 'Murder of her child, Examination 
Nov. 8, 1852. God, God have pity upon me! 

Berger 

Victor, what Is the meaning of all this? What 
have you to do with the wretched governess of the 
Countess Riesner? You are beside yourself. J>et 
me ring for Franz. I will go for the good old Doc» 
tor and return as soon as I can. Or tell me all 
about it. Perhaps that will give you peace. The 
time Is short and Von Werner will be punctual, as 
usual. 

(Fon Sendlingen caresses him and makes a few 
inarticulate efforts to speak, then buries his face in 
his hands on the table before him. His body \quiv' 
ers with emotion,) 

Fon Sendlingen 
(After some time.) George, George, I shall 
tell you what makes me the most miserable man 



i8 THE JUDGE 

in the world, — It is a strange and sad story. (He 
raises his head and makes a strong effort at mas- 
tery.) 

Berger 
Speak briefly and rapidly. I am this woman's 
counsellor, and I will help her and you to what ex- 
tent I can. 

{Von Sendlingen rises from his chair, paces up 
and down the room, and mutters half to himself as 
if absorbed in some dark and agonizing recollec- 
ti'm.) 

Von Sendlingen 
The fate we build up around us by our own 
action raises its little wall so slowly and gradually 
that we do not see this at all in the beginning; 
higher and higher the barracade becomes, and final- 
ly we are imprisoned, and the sky shows only as 
a narrow strip of blue over our heads. I felt secure 
in these latter years; life had been so gentle and 
benign, I had hoped by good deeds manifold to have 
expiated and earned my peace, but it is vain to 
expect absolution except by the definite undoing 
of the wrong in which we have become entangled. 
Now this horrible return of my deed, so far away, 
so long ago! If I could bear it alone! If the 
suflEering came but to me! Why should anotlier 
soul, another heart, whose right to all innocence 
and happiness is incontestable, be forced to endure 
the woe and shame, and all through me, through 
me, most helpless and guilty of men. What can I 
do ? Whither can I turn ? 

Berger 

{Greatly agitated.) Victor, master yourself, for 
my sake, for your own sake, be calm, let me call 



ACT t 10 

for Franz, you are not now in a condition to tell 
me anything. You no doubt overestimate the diffi- 
culties of your position as we all do when trouble 
overtakes us. When you have had time to collect 
yourself, you will be better able to talk the mat- 
ter over, and consider what most needs to be done. 

Von Sendlingen 

{Breathing heavily and pausing before Berger.) 
What is that case of the embezzling cashier of the 
manufacturing establishment, the largest in the city ? 
Has he been dealt with? 

Berger 

{With an expression of amazement.) His mind 
is giving way. No, he is out on bail. Moreover, 
his sister, a very wealthy woman, has made good the 
entire loss, and there has been no interruption of 
business on his account. Von Werner, however, 
talks of the majesty of the law and its due vindica- 
tion. 

Von Sendlingen 

Von Werner — Von Werner — he glares back at 
me everywhere. It ought to be as you say. The 
man has been amply punished by his loss of posi- 
tion and the pain he has endured. But Victorine 
Lippert! Von Werner must preside at her examin- 
ation and trial, and he has already expressed his 
judgment upon her. I have myself put the strong- 
est weapon into his hands by telling him what the 
Minister of Justice thinks of such offenses. It 
is another way in which Fate is winding its coils 
about me. Had I only known! No, she must be 
saved in some way! I must preside at that exam- 



ao THE JUDGE 

jnation and trial. I cannot trust to that correct 
and righteous man. She must be saved, George, 
she must be saved! 

Berger 

In the name of all that is reasonable, be seated, 
Victor. I have already been so stirred to pity by the 
plight in which Victorine Lippert finds herself that 
I had made up my mind to leave no stone unturned 
to secure for her the lightest of sentences. Now 
comes your unaccountable interest in her to pro- 
voke me to intenser activity. 

Von Sendlingen 

(Seating himself and muttering.) Can I tell an> 
one? Yet it must be. What will become of me? 
What will become of her? 

Berger 
(Firmly.) I can see no use in carrying this 
hesitation further. I do not see that I can do any- 
thing fpr you. (Rises as if to go.) 
Von Sendlingen 
(Agitatedly.) No — No — No — ^You must stay, 
you must stay. 

Berger 
Who then is this Victorine Lippert? 

Von Sendlingen 
Heaven have mercy upon me, George, she is my 
own child, she is my daughter! 

Berger 
Your daughter! Impossible! You are deceiving 
yourself! Yet take courage! Poor child! 

Von Sendlingen 
(Seating himself and with much effort.) No, 
George, my best and only friend and helper, I can- 



ACT I ai 

not mistake, the name, the place, the date, all prove 
to me the folly of doubting in the least. Would 
that I might throw off the conviction that deepens 
and darkens over me with increasing strength and 
sinister effect. I would leap at the chance which 
left it open to me to think that I am in error, but 
I have no time to delude myself. You will show 
me the way out of this fate, you will find some 
m.eans of escape both for her and for me. 

Berger 

Whatever can be done, I will do. There are 
many expedients, right and honorable, which you 
know as well as I, and not one shall be left untried. 
Von Sendlingen 

The story of my life must come first. You must 
judge me as you deem best. Only for God's sake 
do not abandon me, do not let me fight this battle 
single-handed. 

Berger 

Tell me not a word. The past Is your own ; out 
of it has come to me the friendship which has lifted 
me to what I know of the highest. I need 
not inquire into any antecedents; I am at your 
side to add what strength I have to yours. I know 
tliat you are troubled, and I can be of service. Still 
I feel strongly that you must be mistaken. You 
can have nothing to do with this Victorine — Vic- 
tor, — Victor — I am lost and bewildered! 

Von Sendlingen 
Yes, everything concurs. Here then in brief are 
the facts. It is another of those unhappy experi- 
ences which belong to so many youths and early 
manhoods, and which we think inevitable adjuncts 



^2 THE Judge 

of our civilization. So little knowledge have we 
gained of the significance of youthful passions, and 
so little have we accomplished for their due develop- 
ment and purification. You know what a family 
I belong to. We date our ancestry back to the time 
when Caesar crossed the Rhine to enter into in- 
decisive conflict with Ariovistus and his Germans; 
indeed we mention the barbarians who were honor- 
ed in founding so great a house. It is a long line 
of heroes and counsellors. As if a man's soul an- 
tedated the period of his awakening into a consci- 
ousness of himself, as if he had been before he really 
learned to live and think. My father made a mesal- 
liance; he was forced to marry my mother by the 
proud recititude of my grandfather, but he was 
exiled to an obscure and wretched estate of the 
family's, to eat out his heart in despair and solitude. 
My parents had supposed that they loved each other ; 
never was there a more terrible mistake. I grew up 
in an atmosphere of hate and fear and appalling 
suffering. {He pauses as if overcome with emotion.) 

Berger 
Do not torture yourself by lingering over details. 
Tell me just enough to make me intelligent in my 
labors for you in the present emergency. 

Von Sendlingen 
My father, before his death, made me take a 
solemn vow that I would never ally myself to a wo- 
man whose rank was less than my own. He would 
save me from the agony which had overtaken him. 
After his decease — my mother had died somewhat 
earlier — my relatives flocked around me, welcomed 
me as the legitimate bearer of a great name, and 



ACT I 23 

set me with everything in my favor on the path of 
my career. I chose the law, made rapid progress, 
and notwithstanding my youth was appointed Judge 
in a town in Hungary. 

Berger 

What an abominable place for an inexperienced 
jurist! 

Von Sendlingen 

You can really have no conception of the situa- 
tion. The town was a mass of ruins, inhabited by 
a population degraded and brutalized. The no- 
bility were, save for their barbaric love of splendor, 
worse than the people. They spent their lives in 
the vainest and most sordid of pleasures, and drew 
their revenues largely from persistent smuggling 
and systematized robbery. I held myself aloof as 
long as I could, and excused myself because of the 
great pressure of work devolving upon me. 

Berger 
A very temporary retirement, I can readily see. 

Von Sendlingen 

I delayed the plunge to the uttermost, but was 
at length obliged to accept the invitations of one 
Mirescul, the most unscrupulous and daring scoun- 
drel of the whole villainous nobility. What a 
travesty that word is as applied to them! It was 
at his house that I met her — Hermina Lippert, the 
gentlest, tenderest, sweetest of women, the mother 
of Victorine, the mother of my child. 

{He places both his hands upon his heart and 
trembles violently. Berger stands over him in great 
alarm. He proceeds.) She was a governess in the 
family. Why prolong the tale? We loved madly 



H THE JUDGE 

from the first ; such vehemence comes to man or wo- 
man but once in a lifetime. The Miresculs threw 
us together and gave us every opportunity. When a 
guest in the house, I was given the room adjoining 
hers. The catastrophe came all too soon. We were 
married secretly. Mirescul was brought before 
me, charged with smuggling. He begged to see 
me alone. He threatened ruin to her and to me if 
I did not take measures to secure his release. I was 
swept off my feet, I was overwhelmed. 

Berger 
You entered the thick of the conflict very early. 

Von Sendlingen 
I allowed Mirescul to go on his own recogniz- 
ance. What was I to do? My duty as Judge, my 
oath to my father, my place as the representative 
of an old family, my love for the woman who had 
given up all for me, aroused a storm which was 
shattering my whole being. I received a note from 
her. She had been grossly affronted by Mirescul, 
who had sought to wring from her a promise to 
exert herself with me in his behalf, and she had fled 
from the house. She was awaiting me. I went to 
her immediately and tried by all means in my power 
to reassure her. 

Berger 

How did it come about that you left her? Oh, 
forgive that question. 

Von Sendlingen 

Ask me for no explanations. I was young and 
beset with frightful complications. My release of 
Mirescul had enabled that miscreant to tamper with 
the smuggled goods, and successfully prevent his 



ACT I 25 

conviction for the crimes which he had so long per- 
petrated with impunity. I found myself accused of 
complicity in his defeat of justice, and gross failure 
in official duty. 

Berger 
What a perdicament! 

Von Sendlingen 

My relatives came at once to my side ; they were 
stern and imperative; they had but little to say 
ahout *^he error of my ways and the folly of my ac- 
tions. They engaged to deliver me from the dis- 
asters which were hanging over me, but they gave 
me plainly to understand that life with Hermina 
was impossible. My father's misfortunes were not 
left without sufficient and gloomy allusion. I can- 
not look back upon that time, I cannot account for 
ray conduct, I cannot defend it. I allowed myself 
to be rescued ; I never saw Hermina again. I wrote 
to her and offered her honorable maintenance; she 
refused, and disappeared. And I never knew that 
I had a child until I saw her name and birthplace 
on this paper today. 

Berger 

A knock! You cannot see anyone now. 

Franz 

(Enters.) Count Riesner very earnestly begs to 
see yoii. 

Von Sendlingen 
Count Riesner? What can he want here today? 
Riesner of all men in the world ! He, the betrayer 
of my — my — 

Berger 
Victor! You forget that we are not alone. 



26 THE JUDGE 

Franz 
I knew that there was something going on. He 
needs me to look after him. I will tell Brigitta. 
What answer am I to make to the Count ? 

Berger 

On second thought I advise you to admit him. 
Not a chance is to be lost! 

Von Sendltngen 
I cannot. It is he who has brought all this shame 
upon me. Yet what right have I to say a single 
word against 'him. Am I not as guilty as he? — 
Tell the Count that I will see him at once. 

Franz 

Guilty! You are very strangely altered. You 
are ill; let me tell the Count to come some 
other time. You could not have slept well last 
night and these early breakfasts were never good 
for you. 

Von Sendlingen 

Go at once, and do not keep the Count waiting 
any longer. 

Franz 

He never talked to me in that way before. I 
shall go for the Doctor at once. At his time of 
life it is bad staying at hotels in large towns and 
being so irregular. What can be the matter any- 
how? (Passes out.) 

Berger 

Bring your strength all together in meeting this 
young man. He may have weighty disclosures to 
make. He may have come for some cause far from 
praiseworthy, and you must needs exercise all your 



ACT I 27 

acumen, and pierce his concealments through and 
through. 

(The count enters.) 

Von Sendltngen 

{After the usual greetings.) Your presence is 
not wholly unexpected, Count Riesner, and I ad- 
mire the candor which you display. I take it for 
granted that you wish to talk about Victorine Lip- 
pert. 

Count Henry 

That is what I am here for. 
Von Sendltngen 

My friend, Berger, is her counsel, appointed by 
the court, and your communications need his ear 
as well as mine. 

Count Henry 

I trust that you will pardon me, if I seem agitat- 
ed, and even incoherent. I have been through so 
much in these last days, and I have had such diffi- 
culty in getting here that I need some time to be 
calm enough to ask you a few questions. I had, 
indeed, been sent away to England, but I succeeded 
in eluding my companions, and I am now doing 
what I can to prevent — my mother — from finding 
my abiding place. I would do what lies in me to 
make reparation to Victorine, whom I love more 
deeply today than ever before. My mother is in- 
flexible. She is infuriated at the poor girl. I was 
kept away when the quarrel took place or I should 
have been at Victorine's side. I would have mar< 
ried her if they had not driven her out of the house. 
I found it out through an inadvertence of one of 
my traveling companions, and I made all expedi- 



28 THE JUDGE 

tion I could in returning. What can I do, what 
can I do? 

Von Sendlingen 

You say that you are stopping in town? 
Count Henry 

Not exactly in town, but very near it. My moth- 
er as yet knows nothing of my return, but she must 
find it out soon, this very morning, no doubt, and 
then the difficulties surrounding me will be much 
increased. 

Von Sendlingen 

You would help this woman accused of so dark 
an offense? 

Count Henry 

Yes, I appeal to you as I would to a father. 
You can help her, you can show me what to do. 
You can be as a father to both of us. I love her 
with all my heart, and the days were so full of 
happiness. I cannot allow myself to think what she 
has endured, it makes me feel as if I should go mad. 
I will marry her, and we can go far away. She is 
as innocent of any crime as God himself, who made 
her to be glad and happy and beautiful. 

Berger 

These things are not so easily settled as you 
suppose. We are no longer discussing some trifling 
misfortune transpiring within the charmed realm 
which we are pleased to call society. This is an 
affair in which society, properly so called, is con- 
cerned, and the part you are to play is not without 
serious danger to yourself. 



ACT I 29 

Count Henry 
You wrong me, you wrong me greatly by these 
insinuations. Has she not been placed in jeopardy 
of her life? Is she not now menaced with the pun- 
ishment of death ? I shall take my place beside her, 
to suffer with her, to expose my guilt and shame, 
and with your help to rescue her from the peril that 
enrings her. Can anything be done? 

Von Sendlingen 
Are you willing to appear in Court and testify 
in her behalf? 

Count Henry 
That is a small matter. I will do anything, 
everything. 

Von Sendlingen 
You are willing to make reparation in the way 
of marriage? 

Count Henry 
To watch over her, to win her forgiveness, to 
make her future forget this past, will be the en- 
deavor of my whole life. 

Von Sendlingen 
Remember what you sacrifice. Can you hope for 
happiness in such a marriage? It has been tried, 
and the consequences have been most wretched. 

Count Henry 
To save her is the only thought that has lodg- 
ment in my brain. Till she is safe, I can speak of 
nothing. What have I to do with my own happi- 
ness? Should I never know another minute of 
gladness, it would not heap upon me half the misery 
through which she has been dragged; and through 
no fault that deserved such relentless persecution. 



30 THE JUDGE 

The devotion of a whole life, at whatever cost, is 
not an equivalent for the agony which has been hers. 

Berge?- 
As counsellor for this poor creature, hounded and 
sore beset, and close to the perilous precipice, where 
an ignominious death awaits her, I shall accept this 
unforeseen assistance. I shall come to you and con- 
sult with you more fully. You will entrust me 
with your address? You know where to find me. 

Count Henry 
{Writing on a card.) It is here; but you will 
be cautious. For the present I must not be seen. 
Von Sendlingen 
I may see that card ? 

Count Henry 
It is on you chiefly that I rely. (Berger hands 
Von Sendlingen the cardj and the latter places it at 
once in a drawer of his desk.) 

Berger 
{To Riesner. Smilingly.) You can trust me. 

Von Sendlingen 
You shall redeem yourself and her. Not an ex- 
pedient known to the law will be left untried. The 
outlook is dark, but we have some reason to hope 
for better things. 

Count Henry 
Thank you both for that. {Leaves.) 

Berger 
{Coming closer to Von Sendlingen.) Providence 
is working for us in unexpected ways. Who could 
have supposed that a young man like Riesner would 
act thus? His imperious mother has, it appears, 
brought into the world a son with a determination 



ACT I 31 

stronger than her own. Fortunately for us his will 
has taken a direction opposite to hers. We shall 
certainly be able to avoid — 

Von Sendlingen 
The death penalty. You can speak plainly. I 
am prepared for anything. An imprisonment of 
indefinite duration would not be an alleviation; it 
would, in truth, be far worse; and then who shall 
preside at these examinations? — ^Who shall be her 
Judge? — and mine! 

Berger 
Von Werner is an idiot, determined that the very 
letter of the law be observed. Can not you preside 
at the preliminary? 

Von Sendlingen 

The law forbids that a father should preside in 
any case affecting his family. Think of it, George, 
put yourself in my place. As Judge I am the mouth- 
piece of the life that beats in the veins of the nation, 
and further I must see to it that no injury ensues 
to that life through any error of mine. All my 
thought, my hope, my deeds have been given to the 
service of this high reality ever since maturity claim- 
ed me. Now I am called to sit in judgment upon 
her, my own flesh and blood, whom my eager pas- 
sion and reckless seizure of delight brought into 
being, and she now staggers under the weight of 
the destiny which should be mine. What she en- 
dures is what I ought to endure; if she dies, it is 
I who ought to stand in her place. Innocent girl, 
caught in the mad whirl of my actions, she bears 
the blame and the burden, while I am honored of 



32 THE JUDGE 

men, called to a higher post of administering justice, 
and drinking in with ardent ears the gratulatory 
speeches of my fellows. I am the doer; she is the 
expiator! It is horrible! 

Ber get- 
In the very views which you are now expressing 
you are acting as the high-thoughted Judge of the 
Judge; who so well fitted to think the right and to 
give it outward potency as yourself? If the law 
does not explicitly forbid, it is your duty and priv- 
ilege to take upon yourself this serious task. You 
can be trusted to be severe enough upon yourself. 
In you always the stern impersonality of justice has 
shown its milder aspect of merciful regard for the 
erring and misguided and hapless, and that mingled 
strength and tenderness will speak through you the 
words and decision of the Highest, yes, Victor, of 
God! 

Von Sendlingen 

You tempt me sorely, but it must not, Cannot be. 
Find some other path out of the labyrinth, help me, 
help me! 

Brigitta 

(Entering in haste.) Von Sendlingen greets her 
with much feeling.) I could not stand it a minute 
more. I waited to have you send for me, and I 
hope/i tbat all this business, would soon be over. 
Franz said you were far from well. We have long- 
ed to see you, and expected to welcome you in our 
good homely way, and we find that you are ill and 
troubled and so engaged that you do not want us 
to come and speak to you. 



ACT t S3? 

f^on Sendlingen 
My gooxi Bi?Igitta, my best thanks are d^e you 
and Franz, and I shall be more suited to the oM 
pleasures and quietude in a short while.- Only be' 
patient with me a little longer. But Brigitta, t 
have a word to say to you just now. You have 
heard of this — this— Victorine Lippert? 

Brigitta 
My heart went out to her as I saw her entering 
her cell a short time ago. 

Von Sendlingen 

That is quite like yourself. I wish you to go to 
her. — I will see that the necessary permission is 
granted. You will bring to her the womanly min- 
istrations of which she must be in need. You will 
be gentle with her, and speak comfort to her, and 
ease her overburdened soul. For my sake, Brigitta, 
for my sake! 

Brigitta 

For j^our sake? 

Von Sendlingen 

Yes, I will explain at some other time. You must 
go to her this very afternoon. Now, Brigitta, I 
shall have some gentlemen at dinner, and I shall 
also wish you to take some of the best we have 
from my own table to the wretched girl yonder. 

Brigitta 
It shall be done as you wish, but I have a small 
commission to fulfill. Here is an old bunch of keys 
which I found in a disused drawer of your desk — 
we have had a thorough cleaning up in your ab- 
sence — and I have taken great care of them. They 
should be put away in a secure place. 



U THE JUDGE 

Von Sendlingen 
I have some vague recollection of them. They 
belonged to my predecessor. I did not attach any 
importance to them. 

Berger 
{Taking the keys.) Curious lot of old rusty 
rubbish 1 I do not believe that any one of them 
can be of the smallest use. 

Brigitta 

Yet this insignificant one {pointing to it distinct- 
ly) opens a door in the w^all betw^een the hous^ 
yard and the prison yard. The door is so con- 
structed, and time has so colored it and the adjacent 
masonry, that you can find it only v^ith difficulty. 
Franz and I looked for it, and at last came upon it 
after a close survey of the whole vk^all. Franz re- 
membered the fact of this key being the one that 
fits in the old lock. 

Von Sendlingen 

That is the key to the door, you say? {Takes it 
and scrutinizes it very seriously.) 

Berger 

In this old-fashioned, not to say mediaeval, com- 
bination of prison and dwelling, no doubt we can 
find any number of doors and posterns and corri- 
dors that no one today suspects of being at all. 
Queer that we should still allow ourselves to live 
in a style that has nothing to do with our century. 
Here are Judge's dwelling, court-rooms, and pris- 
ons, all practically under one roof. A hideous ar- 
rangement and one which we shall change in due 
time. 



Act I 3S 

Fon Sendlingen 

Thank you for your care of the keys, Brigitta. 
It would not be well if they fell into the wrong 
hands. I must blame myself for not having put 
them carefully away, and am glad that I have pos- 
session of them with full knowledge of their value 
again. I had supposed them worthless, and admis- 
sion to the prison yard would, indeed, be of sniall 
avail. Have a good dinner for us, Brigitta. {Bri- 
gitta goes out.) How all these discoveries over- 
whelm me! What a piece of criminal negligence 
to leave the keys lying around in this way. 

Berger 

You exaggerate everything this morning, Victor. 
Ah, there is Von Werner again. {Von Werner 
enters.) 

Von Werner 

I hope that you are recovered. I returned more 
out of solicitude for you than for any other 
reason. Looking over the reports can wait until 
tomorrow. {Throughout with queer stares and 
overdone concern for Von Sendlingen.) 
Von Sendlingen 

No, we will proceed at once. You will both 
dine with me today, and the reading of them can be 
completed this afternoon. 

Von Werner 

Have you decided about the Lippert examina- 
tion ? 

Berger 

We have been giving the matter some con- 
sideration. 



36 THE JUDGE 

Von Sendlingen 
You will forgive me, Von Werner 

Fon Werner 
I do not suppose I am to be relieved of respon- 
sibility. {Chuckles.) 

Von Sendlingen 
Some new evidence has unexpectedly turned up. 
I should like the examination postponed. It could 
occur a week from today, and the trial a week or 
two from that. Can the arrangement be made ? 
Von Werner 
It is within your province to do in the affair as 
you deem best. And also — {Exhibiting great sur- 
prise.) 

Von Sendlingen 

{Slowly and deliberately.) I shall preside at the 
examination. 

The Curtain Falls 



ACT II 

SCENE. — Library of Von Sendlingen as before. 
It is arranged for a judicial examination. Franz 
and Brigitta. A week has elapsed. 

Brigitta 

Everything is ready and it is about time for them 
to begin. 

Franz 

I believe that I have done just as you told me; 
or is there something more? The Baron is very ill, 
and he always had a dislike to the Court Room. I 
don't wonder. Just think how old it is, and what 
scenes have been enacted there. 

Brigitta 
This is not the first time that an examination has 
been held in this room. It is a little unusual, but 
the Judge's condition is a sufficient excuse. 

Franz 
What is the matter anyhow? You seem to be 
m the secret, for there is a secret, and you needn't 
try to deny it. I am an old man, and it is hard 
that I can't be trusted as well as you, who have not 
been in this house half as long as I. 

Brigitta 
Don't find any fault; you are as good and as 
faithful as you can be, and, when your help is need- 
ed, it will be called for, you may be sure. 

Franz 
Are you to be allowed in the room this morning? 

37 



sS The juixiE 

Brigitta 

Yes, the Countess Riesner may need me, and 
perhaps the prisoner as well. 

Franz 

Don't talk to me about the Countess. She is a 
dreadful old woman, and she will have people 
enough to look out for her. You go in to see the 
prisoner every day, and you are to be at the ex- 
amination for her sake; she is in the hospital ward 
now, isn't she? 

Brigitta 

Yes; her health is utterly broken down. She sees 
nothing, she speaks to no one, she accepts what is 
done for her in a dull and unmeaning way, she 
asks only to be judged, and to die as soon as may 
be, that all her miseries may come to an end at once. 

Franz 
Yes, yes, but what have we to do with her? 
We've had trying cases before now, but never one 
that sets us all by the ears as this one does. Why 
should I be left out of it all? It makes me mad, 
and I'm going to have it changed. I want to help, 
too. 

Brigitta 

Hush, they are coming. You will learn about it 
soon enough, everybody will learn all that there 
is to be known, I am greatly afraid. {They pass 
out.) 

(Berger and Von Sendlingen enter. The latter 
has aged perceptibly in the week, his eyes are heavy 
and dull, his hair has whitened about the temples, 
and he looks altogether like a very sick man.) 



ACT II 39 

Von Sendlingen 

The day looks dark through the windows, and we 
may have snow. I feel cold and strengthless. 

Berger 

It seems sufficiently warm in the room. 
Von Sendlingen 

No doubt. You and the others will find it so. 
The chill is in my heart, and a winter bitterer than 
that outdoors is in my brain. 

Berger 

You are again allowing yourself to be overmas- 
tered by your depression, a state which is wholly 
foreign to you. I have always observed in you a 
courageous confronting of untoward conditions, 
which made you appear more like a man of the eld- 
er time than of our own weak and vacillating gen- 
eration. What has become of your strength in the 
hour of greatest need? 

Von Sendlingen 

I do not know. It is my despair that I have it 
no longer. I grope around in my futile weakness, 
and grow less and less capable of facing the 
emergency. I seem to be the plaything of some re- 
vengeful power outside and beyond myself that is 
gradually paralyzing my very heart and soul. Yet 
I would not have it otherwise, strange to say. As 
we have sown, so must we reap. Deed is conjoined 
to deed, no link is missing anywhere, the whole for- 
ever dwells in every part, and woe be to him who 
opposes the overwhelming movement forwards. 
Wrong can be righted only by an expiation which 
replaces what has been done by what ought in 
truth to be. We must pay to the uttermost farth- 
ing. I shall judge both my child and myself. 



40 THE JUDGE 

Berger 
There must be some way of escape. 
Von Sendltngen 

Escape? What would you have? You who 
so deeply know the law cannot talk of escape. 
A crime cannot be atoned by an injustice. Is there 
anything that I can do? 

Berger 

Just now you can shake off the man that you are, 
and put on again the man that you were. These 
forebodings verge upon the superstitious. You have 
always hitherto had fortitude in abundance both 
for yourself and your friends. 

Von Sendltngen 

I am, indeed, selfishly forgetful. 

{Franz brings in the Countess Riesner, Marian- 
na Brandes, and Dr, Rohn. After the usual greet- 
ingSj they take the seats pointed out to them. 
Franz goes out.) 

Dr. Rohn 

I endeavored to dissuade the Countess from com- 
ing at all. Her health, at no time very strong, has 
suffered much through the agitations of the last 
months. I fear greatly any further excitements. I 
suggested to the Countess the writing out of her 
account of the circumstances and sending it to me. 
Von Sendltngen 

That would, undoubtedly, have saved the Coun- 
tess Riesner a disagreeable hour or two, but would 
hardly have been satisfactory from our point of 
view. The privileges of rank and station are ex- 
tensively recognized in our laws and practices, but 



ACT II 41 

at important crises they yield of necessity to higher 
considerations. 

Dr. Rohn 

The law in that way is unquestionably defective 
as in so many others. 

Von Sendlingen 
I have been a life-long advocate of legal reforms, 
but have been, nevertheless, inclined to regard the 
disposition of the law to deal with the person as such, 
without considering differences of class or riches, 
as one of its noblest qualities. 
Dr. Rohn 

Moreover, Miss Brandes is a witness more ef- 
fective, as she was with the Lippert woman on the 
morning after the murder. 

Von Sendlingen 

{Starts perceptibly.) We have not begun the 
investigation as yet. 

Countess Riesner 

One thing, however, overcame all my scruples. 
For this I waived my failing health, my increasing 
pain, my hatred of vulgar publicity. 

Berger 

The latter you could hardly escape in any case, 
my dear Countess. 

Marianna Brandes 

Collect yourself, Madame; be strong. We seem 
to find that justice in the very seat and palace there- 
of wears a face and garb different from the one to 
^vhich we are accustomed. But the right will pre- 
vail, heaven watches over us. 



42 THE JUDGE 

Countess 

My son's interests bring me here. For rhat de- 
signing and wicked female, who dwelt under my 
roof, and enjoyed privileges there not ordinarily 
granted to one in her position in life, I can have only 
feelings of mingled pity and aversion. I suppose that 
she came into my house with her plans duly ma- 
tured. The punishment for such libels upon my 
sex, who drag our name and purity into the mire, 
cannot be harsh enough. The world has too many 
of them, and the removal of one will hardly mend 
matters. 

Von Sendlingen 

{With evident anger.) I must again make it clear 
to you that a condemnation before a hearing docs 
not belong in this room. 

Countess 
Her own act is already her condemnation. 

Von Sendlingen 
We shall see to it, however, that the consequences 
of an act do not exceed the act itself. 

Countess 
My son's welfare concerns me more nearly than 
that of this scheming and ambitious girl. 

Von Sendlingen 
Your son has in all probablity some views of 
his own in the matter. 

Countess 
I have hitherto found him willing to admit that 
my larger knowledge of life has led me to a clearer 
understanding of what is needed than he possessed, 
young as he w^as and blinded by the excess of feel- 
ing. 



ACT II 43 

Berger 

He differs from you, then, in this important 
concern ? 

Countess 

{Looks at him with some curiosity.) The de- 
fender of crime and debauchery will, doubtless, look 
upon my son's strange and misguided views with 
leniency and support. 

Berger 
The exact seat of the debauchery remains yet to 
be disclosed and properly held to execration. 

Marianna Brandes 

There is a Providence which looks down upon 
the world. It provides for every moment of our 
existence the exact pain or pleasure which belongs 
to it. You cannot tell why sorrows should come to 
those so little deserving them, but be courageous to 
meet them, dear Countess, and you will arise from 
them as from a bath of clear waters, nobler, purer, 
if that be possible. 

Countess 

My son may appear at the investigation. Should 
he do so, I wish to say beforehand, that his words 
will be those of a wholly irresponsible being, and 
they must not be taken as absolving the criminal 
from the least shadow of her evil intents. 

Dr. Rohn 
I am ready to present my professional statement 
in atiy form demanded that the young man needs 
the greatest oversight, and ought not to be heard 
at ail. 

Berger 
In plain terms you mean that he is mad. 



44 THE JUDGE 

Marianna Brandes 

Be calm, dear madame. I warned you of all this. 
Heaven is over us; it will guide and protect you, 
the truest of its children. 

{Enter Von Werner, overdressed in a somber 
style of extreme dignityj Dernegg and a guard. 
After the customary greetings, they take the places 
prepared for them. At a sign from Von Sendlingen 
the guard passes out,) 

Dernegg 
(To Von Sendlingen.) It is your preference, I 
believe, to make this examination informal. As 
public prosecutor I am perforce made to proceed 
against the young person so heavily accused, but 
inasmuch as the circumstances have never been fully 
developed, I am only too glad to find it possible to 
seek extenuating or wholly clearing incidents in 
this complication of misfortunes. 

Von Sendlingen 
You express my wishes. 

Von Werner 
(Raising his hands in horror,) We must guard, 
however, against the intrusion of sympathy with 
youth and inexperience. (Looks with appealing 
eyes at the Countess.) Crime is yet crime, what- 
ever its attendants ; the State, the whole of civiliza- 
tion, rests upon correct judicial proceedings. (Gazes 
profoundly into vacancy,) 

Marianna Brandes 
The angels look down upon us again, dear. 

Countess 
They are forever on the side of the right. Be 
assured that all will be well. Due punishment 



ACT II 45 

must be meted out upon the offenders against our 
old and venerated aristocracy. 

(Count Henry enters and at a motion from Von 
Sendlingen seats himself opposite to his mother.) 

Countess 

(To her son.) You venture here? In your con- 
dition of mind? Dr. Rohn, will you act now? 

Dr, Rohn 
I wish to ask permission and aid in removing 
Count Henry from the room. I give it as my pro- 
fessional opinion — 

Count Henry 
I appeal to the Judge. I was never better. This 
is a manoeuvre to keep me from doing what is the 
most important act of reparation in my life. 

Von Werner 
{Hurriedly interrupting.) Dr. Rohn*s request is 
not in accordance with any rule that occurs to me 
now. (Smiles.) All light is desirable in such a 
preliminary as this. (Clasps his hands in front of 
him.) Count Riesner may be the bearer of very 
conclusive intelligence. (Coughs.) We shall learn 
all about his condition of mind when he is called 
upon to speak. His dismissal cannot be entertained 
now. (Nods his head sagaciously a number of 
times.) 

Berger 

God be thanked for pedantry once, at least. 

(The door at the side opens and Victorine Lip- 
pert enters accompanied by Brigitta and the guard. 
She walks slowly like a person in a dream. Her 
eyes stare before her and she seems to see no one. 
She places her arm over her face as if to hide it, cow^ 



46 THE JUDGE 

ers down into the chair assigned her, and trembles 
piteously in every limb.) 

Brigitta 
Look up at the good Judge. His heart is full 
of compassion for everyone— certainly for you. 

Berger 
(Steps up and speaks softly to her,) Courage, my 
young friend, courage! 

Victorine 
{As if to herself,) Why should one suffer so 
much as I have done? Why does not Death open 
the door into his rest and peace more easily? Why 
did they not let me die in the cold out under the 
trees? Why was I saved for this? 

Berger 
(Softly,) You shall not die. Life will begin 
for you again. Speak your mind freely and entire- 
ly. You will be heard by ears that wish you well 
in every way. Stand firm against every false accu- 
sation. Hope for the best. Light and life and 
friendship and love are waiting for you after this 
trial is over; I promise them to you, my suffering 
child, I promise them to you. 

Victorine 
No, no; why do you disturb me? I do not know at 
all what you can mean. I am ready for the worst; 
let it only come quickly. 

Dernegg 
This woman, your honor, is accused of the dread- 
ful crime for whose investigation we are met this 
morning. 

Von Sendlingen 
Let her arise and face the Court. 



ACT II 47 

Brigitta 

Stand up, Victorine, I am here to support you. 
Be not afraid. 

Victorine 

Spare yourself any unnecessary care of me. What- 
ever fear I had is dead long ago. I have but one 
anxiety, and that is that they will let me live. 
What can they want of me? 

Von Sendlingen 

It is, indeed, a dreadful crime with which you 
stand charged. Are you guilty or guiltless of these 
sad accusations ? Answer as you value your life and 
your soul. 

Victorine 

What can I say to all this? I do not know any 
man or anything any more. I am a poor dead wo- 
man who somehow yet breathes in your presence. 
I have sinned deeply, I am guilty of much, oh, so 
much — I am guilty, your Honor, before men and 
before God — but I have been very ill, and I am 
ignorant of many things that must have transpired 
while my heart was burning with pain and remorse 
and fever. 

Dernegg 

You are charged with slaying your newly born 
child. 

Victorine 

Ah, God is my witness — surely he has not al- 
together abandoned me — as the angels in heaven 
know and could tell if they only had pity on a 
miserable woman like me — as the good Saviour, 
Christ, is aware — I can reveal nothing about the 
death of my child; they placed it cold and still in 



48 THE JUDGE 

my arms; that is all I know about it; I am not 
sure that it ever breathed the chilly morning air; 
punish me for my fault, do with me as you will, 
bring me quickly into the arms of waiting death, 
but of the crime that you speak so loud against me 
I am not guilty. 

Berger 
Your honor will doubtless allow me to enter the 
formal plea of not guilty in behalf of my client who 
will tell her story afterwards. 

Von Werner 

{With tremendous and chilling bitterness,) We 
shall reach no adequate results in these extraordinary 
proceedings unless more usual and better methods 
prevail. 

Countess 

Why proceed with the examination at all ? Would 
it not be better to wait until the regular trial? 
Such would be my pleasure, and a properly ac- 
credited deposition would relieve me of the dis- 
agreeableness of a further presence in Court. 

Marianna Brandes 
Heaven will surely bring this to pass. 

Von Sendlingen 
The ascertainment of the real facts in the case, and 
all the facts, can, perhaps, be more successfully 
achieved by some departure from legal usage, and 
we should hardly be justified in the convening of 
this assembly unless we showed results from it val- 
uable both to the prisoner and the State. 

Count Henry 

I suppose it is thoroughly understood by all 
present that I am here in support of the prisoner. 



ACT II 49 

Countess 

We know it only too well. 

Victorine 

(Apparently seeing him for the first time.) Is 
he against me too ? Did they succeed in tearing him 
from me? No doubt he has abandoned me. I 
tried by all means in my power to see him, but 
they sent him away, and I had to suffer alone. 

Brigitta 

He is your friend. He never abandoned you. 
You have many friends here, more than you know 
of at present. 

Von Sendlingen 

The statement of the Countess will be first in 
prder. Many of the facts are undisputed and need 
no prolongd attention; the evident ailing condition 
of the accused warns us to be as brief as possible. 
Her strength must be as fully restored as may be 
for the coming trial. Let no one speak aught save 
what he deems to be the truth— the very truth it- 
self. The Countess will proceed. 

Countess 

The motherless children left to mc by my dear, 
departed daughter had been for some time under the 
religious care of Miss Brandes, who had been in my 
family for a number of years, a guide and a men- 
tor in the higher life which we should all live and 
of which so few of the younger women of this un- 
godly generation know anything. 



so THE JUDGE 

Von Sendlingen 

This is wholly irrelevant, my good Countess. 
Miss Brandes will be heard later. 

Countess 

Miss Brandes' health, however, was not good, and 
the care of the children wore upon her terribly. I 
trembled lest I should lose her. I made up my 
mind to have a governess for them. I searched with 
care, and hoped to have found a suitable one in 
Victorine Lippert, who came with satisfactory tes- 
timonials, and whose shyness and reserve, conspicu- 
ously assumed at our first meeting and for somt 
time after very successfully maintained, inclined me 
to favor her. I supposed that I saw in her what 
Marianna — Miss Brandes — had been a few years be- 
fore. How woefully was I deceived. The tmiidity 
and devotion to duty which marked the woman's 
behavior during her first months in my liouse were 
thrown aside at once with the return of my son 
from Paris, where he had been for some time con- 
nected with the Austrian Embassy. . The friendship, 
wholesome and elevating with Miss Brandes, which 
I had gladly seen growing from her advene into 
our circle, was abruptly broken off, and poor Mari- 
anna was constantly in tears over the rebuffs she 
was obliged to endure. So sudden was the change 
coming over Victorine Lippert that the fact of her 
having played a shrewd and well matured part was 
apparent at once. Her real character came to the 
surface, she shamefully and passionately threw her- 
self into Count Henry's arms, and evidently hoped 
to gain everything from his youth and inexperience. 



ACT n 51 

Count Henry 

Mother, I must still call you by that name, how 
can you speak thus in the shadow of death, the dark 
cloud of ignominy, hovering over a woman like 
yourself ? 

Victorine 

{With a pale burst of joy.) I am not wholly 
abandoned. I shall die, I shall go alone into the 
abyss, the gloom there is deep, but I see the beckon- 
ing of friendly hands, their light pierces the dark- 
ness around me as I sink into it beyond recall. 

Von Werner 
{Very decidedly j with waving of the hands.) 
The Countess must go on without interruption. 

Countess 
The consequences rapidly ensued when unprin- 
cipled passion in the woman meets more than half 
way the hot blood of the young man of today. The 
latter cannot be blamed; these are mere and com- 
mon incidents in his career. At last the woman's 
condition was such that her further stay in my house 
was no longer endurable. I was forced to make 
it plain to her that she must go. She proved re- 
fractory, but she went, nevertheless. 

Dernegg 
That is the whole of your evidence? 

Berger 
The conduct of the accused is very differently re- 
ported by other witnesses. 

Countess 
I know nothing further directly. Miss Brandes 
saw the woman on the morning after she left my 
house. 



52 THE JUDGE 

Fon Sendlingen 

Miss Brandes will take up the thread of the nar- 
rative where the Countess has left it. 

Marianna Brandes 
As I am heard in Heaven, I will tell in a few 
words what I saw further, and I will not permit 
myself to deviate a hair's breadth from the narrow 
path I must pursue. How right the Countess was 
to keep her son from this contamination — 

Countess 

May I not be heard a moment? I have known 
the woman speaking for years, you all know her, 
and — 

Von Werner 

No, no; this is an interruption. {Half rises and 
smiles.) Miss Brandes will go on. 

Marianna Brandes 

Heaven aid me to bear calumny. I surely can 
in the service of the right. To save the house from 
further scandal, Miss Lippert was forced to leave. 
True it is, that it was an inclement night, and the 
distance to the nearest village considerable. On the 
morning following, quite early, I thought it best, 
accompanied by a faithful serving man, to find out 
what had become of Miss Lippert. As we passed 
through the wood intervening between the house 
and the village, we found her delirious on the 
ground, a dead child with cruel finger marks on its 
neck by her side. A woman from the village was 
beside her. 

\Perger 

It had snowed during the night? 



ACT II 53 

Marianna Brandes 
I believe so. My memory does not serve me well 
in regard to these minor points. 

Berger 
Is the woman from the village somewhere at 
hand this morning? 

Dernegg 
She lies in her home very ill and was wholly un- 
fit to come. We hope to produce her and the serv- 
ing man at the trial. 

Fon Sendlingen 
This is all? 

Dernegg 

I believe this is all for the present. 

Berger 

(To Von Sendlingen,) You doubtless wish to 
interrogate the accused? 

Fon Sendlingen 

You have heard, Victorine Lippert, this arraign- 
ment, which, I am informed, is supported by other 
corroborative statements. You can now refute it 
by such means as are within your power. Speak 
fearlessly; you are in the presence of justice; noth- 
ing shall come to you as punishment save what 
you have duly brought upon yourself. 

Fictorine 

I am weak, and my head whirls. I do not under- 
stand all that has been going on. I have done great 
wrong, and I ought to be punished. They have 
told a great many things, I have been bitterly hurt 
while listening to them. Why do you wish a repe- 
tition from me? 



54 THE JUDGE 

Countess 
She confesses her guilt. What need we more ? 

Berger 
She will speak for herself in a moment. We have 
letters to dispute the charges of premeditated plot- 
ting; we need also very much to hear from the 
peasant woman. 

Count Henry 
And you need to hear from me. 

Brigitta 
Stand up, child, and tell your story. The Judge 
looks upon you mildly and generously. 

Von Sendlingen 
Did you plot against the peace of this noble 
family ? 

Victorine 

{Starting as if awakening.) Did I plot against 
anyone? Who was I to think of plots? I thought 
but of my young charges, they were sweet and good, 
and it was a pleasure to be with them. I was then 
but a mere girl, I had lived only in the seclusion 
of the school where my mother had placed me. 
When she died, it was necessary for me to do some- 
thing for myself. What knowledge had I of men 
and the world? The brilliant life in the great 
house was such a change to me. I did not feel my- 
self at home in it, the Countess was cold and im- 
perious, and Miss Brandes told me about doing things 
which I did not approve, saying one thing and 
meaning another. I was bewildered with it all. 
Marianna Brandes 

Shameless creature! Protect mc, Countess! {She 



ACT II 55 

covers her face with her handkerchief and seems to 
be weeping.) 

Victorine 

I had been warned about the way of life in great 
families, but I had forgotten at first. At last, I 
thought that I saw through it all, and began to 
be more myself, and stronger. Then the Count 
came — and then — - 

Berger 

Do not falter. We listen to you very attentively. 
Every word you utter is important. 

Fictorine 
The Count came, the house was always full of 
guests, he seemed tired of the life which only feebly 
aped the life he had been living in Paris, we were 
then thrown much together. Spare me additional 
details; you know it all as well as I can tell it. 

Von Sendlingen 
Much depends upon the story as it comes from 
your lips. Did the Count promise you marriage? 

Victorine 
Yes, yes ; he has my mother's ring, and I have the 
one he gave me. (She shows upon her finger a 
quaint circlet set with alternate small diamonds and 
pearls. ) 

Countess 
An heirloom in our family. It must be restored 
to us. 

Count Henry 
I promised her marriage, your Honor. 

Von Werner 
{In his usual prompous manner.) This must 



S6 THE JUDGE 

cease. If these interpolations recur, we must un- 
dertake another form of examination. 
Von Sendlingen 
The accused will go on — 

Victortne 
We saw a great deal of each other. Miss Brandes 
encouraged me in many ways to allow the intimacy 
to take its course. The Countess told me that her 
son was never happy at home, and she hoped that I 
would not let the time hang heavy on his hands. 
Miss Brandes assured me again and again that 
Heaven gave special privileges to the rich and the 
titled, and that it was a duty to obey the higher 
will. 

Countess 
I protest against all this. 

Marianne Brandes 
We shall not be forsaken. Let us look to the 
skies for protection. Shameless wicked creature! 

Von Sendlingen 
We are all attentive to your story. 

Victorine 
I was carried away in the storm. Ah, God, that 
I should say such things here, that I should thus be 
forced to bare my inmost heart before strangers, 
and before those who have treated me cruelly! 

Brigitta 
Strength, Victorine, strength! 

Victorine 

{As if mastering herself with much effort,) Yet 

what does it signify to me? Away false modesty 

and maidenly reserve! They have been torn from 

me savagely already. After what I have endured, 



ACT II 57 

these last pangs are easily bearable! I loved Count 
Henry with all my soul. I was young, I had no 
one to counsel me, the atmosphere of that house 
was hot and intoxicating. He seemed the one gen- 
erous person there. I believed that he loved me, 
he promised to marry me, and — oh, Heaven, and my 
mother in Heaven, forgive me — I fell. 

Countess 

We are able to give the particulars of your life 
before you came to us. You were retained at school 
with the utmost difficulty. The wildness was in 
your blood and very origin. 

Victorine 

Why do you let her insult me thus? I stand 
here pleading for my life, not that I value it, take 
it and take it quickly, and release me from the 
scorn and agony. I have sinned, and I accept ig- 
nominy and death for my punishment, but I am 
not the only one to blame. I did not sin alone, 
must the woman always expiate alone? And save 
me from those women, they are blacker than the 
storm and wickeder than night! 

Countess 

Who will listen to your ravings or your accusa- 
tions ? Such women as you must suffer alone. What 
pity or consideration have you the right to ask? 
Crime and intrigue lead to the gutter and the scaf- 
fold. 

Victorine 

Oh, God, I thought that I had patience to the 
end. I had brought myself to believe that I should 
soon be out of the whirl of sorrow and at peace, 
but the whole affair sweeps back into my brain. 



58 THE JUDGE 

Why should I suffer alone? Punish her, the de- 
ceiver, the procuress, punish him, the stately man 
of the world, who breaks hearts for his pastime! 
Are there two Justices in this world, one for the 
poor, and another for the rich? One for the wo- 
man and another for the man? Have I not borne 
the heat of exposure shrivelling and devouring me? 
Shall she go on to catch more maidens in her net? 
Shall he walk free to indulge his passions again 
and again? I am poor and friendless, he is rich, 
and his haughty mother laughs at these boyish 
escapades. There must be right somewhere, the 
same for high and low, the same for man and wo- 
man. Why is not she arraigned as well as I? 
Why is he not at my side? 

Count Henry 
{Impetuously.) I am at your side! I am ready 
to walk into the cell with you! I am shamed be- 
yond measure, I am broken and overcome. I would 
take upon myself all that they can inflict upon us 
both. What you have endured is far too 
much. You should pass hence, free as the air, with- 
out a stain, and it is I who should suffer for my 
wife — my wife in the sight of Heaven, and I swear 
it in the sight of man, if I can but bring it to pass. 
Von Werner 

{The pedantic tone to be maintained in this 
speech.) This is unprecedented. Silence. We may 
be obliged to call upon the guard. This is scandal- 
ous. We must follow the proper course of the in- 
vestigation. 

Dr. Rohn 

I beg leave to interfere. We had reason to ex- 



ACT II 59 

pect some such wilful exhibition on the part of the 
Count. I must ask that he be removed and placed 
in custody. I am ready to show that for some time 
his mind has been giving way. It is for this very 
cause that he was brought home from Paris. His 
talk is the wildest insanity. 

Countess 
Let me go, I cannot stay longer. 

Martanna 
Angels and ministers of grace look down upon us. 
Von Werner 

{Throughout with forced voice and extravagant 
gesticulation.) There must be order in the Court. 
The self accusations of the Count signify nothing. 
He is not now on trial nor is it our business to look 
into his Tightness of mind. We must allow the 
witness to go on. But let all see to it that we are 
not again disturbed. You agree with me? {To 
Von Sendlingen.) 

Von Sendlingen 

We must hear your story through, Victorine 
Lippert. 

Victorine 

What more have I to tell? It is soon finished. 
They became furious with me. I feared for my 
life and the life of my child. I was wretchedly ill, 
maddened, beside myself. The Count disappeared. 
They told me that he had gone to England to be 
wedded to some one in his own rank in life — what 
do men mean by rank in life? 

Count Henry 
Poor girl ! 



6o THE JUDGE 

Victorine 

They drove me from the house, ailing as I was, 
drove me forth with scorn, with savage insults. They 
would not let me clothe myself properly. I had but 
an old shawl, worn and small, for my head, and 
nothing to wrap around me. Thinly clad as I was, 
they forced me out into the night and storm. They 
told me to betake myself to the first muck-heap, and 
bring my brat into the world there. The night was 
fearful. The winds were howling, and a wet snow 
was falling. Not a light anywhere. Some instinct 
led me to the wood. I found a place a little dryer 
than the rest. I fell down in frightful agony, I be- 
came wild, delirious. Then I knew nothing at 
all. When I opened my eyes, I found a woman 
and Miss Brandes beside me. They put the dead 
boy in my arms. If there were any finger marks on 
his neck, I know nothing of them. I cannot tell 
what happened in that night. I only know that I 
wanted to die and take my baby with me. Oh, your 
Honor, do you think that I could have hurt my 
little baby; I am guiltless of that! 

Countess 

Who will believe this trumped-up story, and from 
her whose mother — 

Victorine 

My mother ! She is a saint in Heaven. She looks 
down in pity on her child. I shall go to her soon, and 
she will fold me in her arms, and I shall forget, and 
peace will be mine once more. 

Countess 
Her mother! That person set her daughter a 



ACT II 6i 

worthy example. What could one expect in the 
child? The mother before her was a wanton. 

Victorine 

That is a lie — a base lie — an infamous lie — my 
mother is a saint in Heaven! Yes, I have told you 
all. I am ready to die, if you judge me to that. 
What men may think of me, a dying woman, has 
little import to me. God knows the truth. He 
knows that my story is true; I make no defense; 
but here in the very presence of death, it may be, I 
say that my mother was good and pure ; never was a 
mother better, never a woman purer. She trusted a 
villain in the form of a human being — and he must 
have been the worst of men to have abandoned her — 
but she was noble. I ask nothing for myself, but 
blame her not because I am unworthy. (Bursts into 
violent and hysteric weeping,) 

Count Henry 
Let me be heard in her behalf. Let me have an 
opportunity to corroborate her story, even though 
it tear me forever from those that I love and honor 
yet in spite of all. 

Fon Sendlingen 

Look at the accused! Terrible indeed it is to 
hear her. 

{Throughout the act Von Sendlingen has shown 
by face and gestures his extraordinary interest in the 
accused, and at this point his excitement and agita- 
tion are most marked.) 

Von Werner 
{In his exaggerated manner.) We must ad- 
journ this court. Nothing useful can be gained by 
prolonging these disgraceful scenes. 



6a THE JUDGE 

Count Henry 
Will you not listen to mc? 

Von Sendlingen 
It is best to adjourn. {In a choking voice.) 

Von Werner 
(Assuming fully the airs of the sole master,) Lead 
away the prisoner. 

{IVhile they are doing so. Count Henry crosses 
the stage, and seizes Victorine by the hand. She 
allows him to take it, and they gaze each into the 
other s eyes a moment. The guard steps in between 
and Count Henry passes out rapidly.) 
Von Werner 
The examination is closed. I am afraid but 
little of value has come from it, but such use as can 
be made of it will be done. 

Countess 
(To Dr. Rohn.) Look after Henry. 

Dr. Rohn 
He has gone already. 

Countess 

May I ask assistance in taking my son into 
proper custody, so that he may not in his folly injure 
himself ? 

Von Werner 

(A little more in a normal manner, but stiffly 
and with command.) Such help as we can give is as 
a matter of course yours. 

(Countess, Marianna and Dr. Rohn leave the 
room.) What is the trouble, Von Sendlingen? 
Arouse yourself. You have been behaving strangely 
during most of the examination, and I saw that you 



ACT n 63 

were far from recovered from your recent illness. 

It was therefore that I took so much upon myself. 

Von Sendlingen 

I owe you great thanks. 

Dernegg 

You appoint the trial for two weeks from today? 
Von Werner 

{Learnedly, and with the judicial mien.) I do 
not see any reason for delay. No attention can be 
given to the wild ravings of Count Henry. The 
young man's conscience is aroused, an unusual fact 
among his class. He must be looked after and pro- 
tected. His very remorse shows him to be the more 
worthy of it. The indiscretions of youth must not 
wholly cloud his future. The testimony of Miss 
Brandes and the village woman is clear as to the 
guilt of the Lippert girl. Things are very wrong in 
our world today, and we must not be too lenient. 
The Minister of Justice urges severity in cases of 

this kind. 

Dernegg 
Will the Baron preside at the trial? 

Berger 
Von Sendlingen — 

Von Sendlingen 
No, I am not well. Von Werner will do so. 

Von Werner 
{With ill-concealed pleasure.) I wish you an 
early improvement. {Von Werner and Dernegg 
pass out.) 

Berger 

What have you done? Placed the fate of your 
innocent child in the hands of that unthinking man! 



64 THE JUDGE 

Von Sendlingen 
I could not do otherwise. I am a Judge as well 
as a father. 

Berger 
What a tragedy is all this! The good and noble 
are the ones who suffer in it all ! Were you willing 
to swerve from the prescribed path, what might you 
not gain ? 

Von Sendlingen 

Do you advise me to that? 
Berger 

No, but why should things be thus? Can 
we not find something to do? Does not a solution 
of this grief and difficulty exist, or are we greater 
and gentler in our thought than is the destiny which 
prevades the world? 

Von Sendlingen 

There are two worlds, George, the world of 
fate, and the world of will. They do not neces- 
sarily coincide. When this is the case, our wills 
may interfere and set affairs to rights, but if in so 
doing we offend against the purposes of fate, we 
must endure the consequences, whatever they may 
be. 

Berger 

Are law and right always coincident? 

Von Sendlingen 
Perhaps not. 

Berger 

You refuse to take upon yourself the presiding 

at the trial because a father should not intervene 

in a case affecting his daughter; but you place the 

trial in charge of a man who is sure to give prcce- 



ACT II 65 

dency to the formal and technical. Have you the 
right to injure the right in the interest of the merely 
legal? Do you not thus enact a greater wrong by 
being true to the law, and bitterly false to the just 
and right? 

Von Sendlingen 
I will find a way out of the maze. 

Berger 
What do you mean? 

Vo7i Sendlingen 

Would that the hour might be spared me that 
will solve for you this riddle. You will some day 
echo the wish from your innermost heart, dear 
friend. Meanwhile a thousand thanks and good 
day. 

{Berger leaves. Von Sendlingen goes to his desk, 
unlocks a drawer, and takes out the rusted hunch 
of keys. He selects a small one, and looks at it 
intently.) 

Von Sendlingen 

I hold the key, indeed, and I shall not hesitate to 
use it when there is need. 

The Curtain Falls 



ACT III 

SCENE. — The library of Von Sendlingen as 
before. On the wall hangs a new and superb por- 
trait of the Judge in his Judge's robes. It is 
evening and the room is brilliantly lighted. Three 
months have passed. 

Brigitta enters leading Victorine. 
Brigitta 

How firm and strong and noble you were at the 
trial ! 

Victorine 

I had learned wisdom at my former ordeal. 
What a life has been mine! All other people seem 
able to give expression to their thoughts and feel- 
ings, and friends hang upon their words, and en- 
courage them with smiles to reveal what is going on 
within them. I, however, am forever thrust back 
upon myself. When I claim the usual rights ot 
everyone born into the world, I must at once suffer 
the direct punishment. Do you suppose it will 
be different up there? After I have gone through 
the chill and murky avenue which leads through 
death to light? Up there in the silver realms of 
peace, where my mother is waiting for me? 

Brigitta 

{Stroking her hair, and gazing at her fondly,) 
Child, it is indeed a strange and dreary night 
which engirds you, but I know that the bitterest 
part of it is past, and I see the quivering of morn- 
ing across the apparently moveless blackness. Take 

66 



Act 111 i^ 

heart, and do not sink from the height of simple 
courage on which you stood to the admiration of 
every one. 

Vicforine 

The morning comes, a flood of radiance, a morn- 
ing of forgiveness, a radiance of consolation, over 
there, on the other side of the dark weaves, v^^hich 
I so long to cross. Ah me! Why is young life 
so strong? I have had enough to break a dozen 
lives. But where is Count Henry? I have not 
dared to ask that question before, although it has 
been constantly on my lips. I had nearly died 
when he abandoned me, his sudden return was an 
unspeakable uplift. Has he again deserted me? 
His mother has won him away from me? 

Brigitta 

No, indeed. He has left his great home, and 
all their efforts to find him have been unavailing. 

Vtctorine 

Shall I see him again? 

Brigitta 

Yes, you^ shall certainly see him again. 
Victorine 

But why am I here? Why did you come in that 
mysterious way to my cell, and lead me forth 
through the prison yard, and that small scarce-seen 
gate in the wall? What do you want with me, a 
girl condemned to death for a heinous crime? 

Brigitta 

You were wrongfully condemned. The good 
Judge felt that a condemnation produced by Vort 
Werner, the pedant, could not be right. I am not 
versed in such affairs, but the letter of the law has 
been too strictly followed. 



68 THE JUDGE 

Vicforine 
What then? What comes of that? And this 
strange release? This taking me out of my prison? 

Brigitta 
The good Judge has desired it. Appeals of all 
sorts to all sorts of courts have been made in your 
favor. Unfortunately they failed. The Minister 
of Justice has decided against you. 

Vicforine 
All this has been done for me? And wherefore? 

Brigitta 
In the interest of justice, and now the good Judge 
wishes to see you and you have been brought here. 

Victorine 

He is coming to see me? Oh, I remember him. 

He was so mild and full of sympathy for me. I had 

a strange and unaccountable feeling as I looked at 

him. Had I ever seen him before, do you suppose? 

Brigitta 
He has taken your misfortunes very much to 
heart. All the world knows him and loves him and 
honors him. Speak to him freely, he can be of 
much assistance to you. 

Victorine 
Let it be over, as soon as it may be. I only ask 
that his may be my last visit — save yours, Brigitta, 
do not let me lose you. I cannot endure any more. 
I shall evade their penalty. Death will come to me 
soon ; long before that fearful day arrives. I would 
much prefer to be alone, to make my peace with 
everything, and then to suffer no interruption. The 
good minister I can see and hear, he always leaves 
me calmer. You will pardon all this, and receive 



ACT III 69 

such sincere and profound thanks as a poor girl like 
me can offer. Let the Baron come now, and then 
let me prepare for the end, which is not far off. 
{Throwing her arms around Brigitta.) You will 
stay with me during this interview, you must stay 
with me. 

Brigitta 

I believe that the Baron wishes to see you alone. 
He will be very kind to you and he has much to 
say to you. 

{Von Sendlingen appears at the door.) Thert 
now. {Kisses her.) Open up all your heart to 
him. {Embraces her again and passes out.) 
Von Sendlingen 

You are feeling much stronger, I hope, this morn- 
ing. 

Victorine 

I cannot echo that hope. I gladly find that I am 
getting weaker every hour. It will be over soon; 
I shall need no one's care very long; and I shall 
escape that — that last horror. 

Von Sendlingen 

My poor child, I know. But you are young, 
you must not lose hope. Heaven will interfere 
in your behalf. 

Victorine 

Heaven indeed. How long is it since Heaven 
took any care of the poor and miserable? Why 
bring into my mind the thought of pardon? That 
would be terrible. How should I re-enter life? 
It has neither need nor desire for women like me; 
but my agony will not be very long now. I shall 
leave this cell to rest in death. 



70 trite juiiGE 

Fon Sendlingen 
Surely the physician has given you no such intima- 
tion. 

Victorine 
No one is to be blamed. I read it plainly enough 
in his face and eyes and unwillingness to answer my 
questions. Then the Minister with his many pre- 
cepts and warnings — 

Von Sendlingen 
Poor child, they have not been torturing you with 
their zealous anxieties for your spiritual welfare? 

Victorine 

Oh, no. With the abandonment of my moth- 
er in my memory, and my own fate before my eyes, 
it is hard to believe in a just and merciful power that 
rules the world and men. The good minister gives 
me such consolation as he can, but it is not by him 
that I am helped. I believe that there will be 
recovery somehow, somewhere, from all these ills. 
There was one thing, however, that the minister 
asked me, and he came back to it again and again, 
although I could give him but one answer. It tor- 
ments me yet to think of it. 

Von Sendlingen 

What may that have been, my child? 

Victorine 

You ask me about it, too. I cannot tell why I 
speak so freely to you. Yet I saw from the first 
that you meant to be kind to me. You were so 
different from the severe judge, who frowned upon 
me down from his great height of goodness. Then 
I am a poor dying girl, and you are older and gentle 
and wise. 



ACT III 71 

Von Sendlingen 
I do not wish you to give yourself any needless 
anguish, but tell me what was it that the minister 
asked of you? 

Victorine 

He asked me whether there was any one to whom 
I cared to send a message, any friend that thought 
much of me, and I told him there was none. 
Von Sendlingen 
Not one? 

Victorine 

Oh, Count Henry, I suppose that I shall never 
see him again. Besides his mother says he is not 
well. The minister, though, persisted in asking 
me questions, and spoke to me of my^ — my father. 
Von Sendlingen 

And what did you answer him? 
Victorine 

He wished me to say that I forgave him. I 
must be in the right spirit before I enter Eternity: 
what answer could I give him? I told him that I 
did not know who my father was, my mother al- 
ways refused to mention the name, and I further 
told him that I scorned my father, that my misfor- 
tunes were made by my father, that I might pity, but 
should never be able to forgive my father. 

Von Sendlingen 

My child, do not forget the shadow in which 
we are standing. Say no bitter words. They 
cannot have a real place in your heart. What do 
you know of this man? Perhaps he was true and 
sore-bcset and forced by the bitterest of circum- 



72 THE JUDGE 

stances to the course which it may have been a very 
living death for him to take. 

Victorine 

I know him; I need not have seen him for that. 
I understand his character, his high and noble name, 
his circumstances, his career that faithfulness to my 
mother would have interfered with. I know him 
from the lips of my mother, the saintliest and purest 
of women. Once only she spoke to me, "Had 
he been of light and frivolous mind," she said, "I 
might have forgiven him; had he been one of the 
mere pleasure-loving crew, I might have blamed 
my own folly and overlooked his sin, but he was 
strong and earnest and thoughtful. Life to him 
was no mere game to be played lightly; young as 
he was, he had penetrated somewhat into its mean- 
ing. His abandonment of me was, therefore, no 
mere impulse of the moment ; it was the cool calcu- 
lating decision of one who took into account all 
points of view. He left me because I should hav^ 
been a hindrance to his success." So she spoke to 
me, and what am I to think of him? Her death— 
and my murder — be upon his head! May he meet 
the full reward of his deed! I only dare not say 
that I hate his very memory. 

Von Sendlingen 

Unsay that word! You are not aware of the 
wrong that you are doing. There is much to be 
told you, and many extenuating circumstances to bt 
unfolded to you. Do not be wrathful. He has 
suffered even as you and your mother have suffered. 
He would make expiation by all ways that He in his 
power. Name, rank, fortune, honorable recogni- 
tion of genuine work done for his fcllow-mcn, he 



ACT III 73 

would give all to learn that In some way he could 
undo the miserable past, he could upbuild a dwell- 
ing for those he has wronged, he could yield up 
his life to make atonement. 

Fictorine 
Who authorizes you to say all this to me? Have 
you come from him? Has he sent you here? In 
this hour to look upon the last effect of his act, 
the last poisonous flower that has grown from the 
root of his pleasure? Do you know him? Why did 
he not come himself? My mother was his lawful 
wife; why did he abandon her? 

Fon SendUngen 

What have I said? Did I tell you that I knew 
your father ? I was but constructing a possible case ; 
— you must be willing, child, to forgive as you 
hope yourself to be forgiven. Your life has been, 
indeed, an unhappy one, but why allow yourself to 
indulge in such bitterness of feeling? You have 
made your peace, you have pardoned, you have no 
more hatred for any one; surely not for him whose 
punishment will be direful, I am certain, who 
doubtless would be willing to take your place here 
if he only could. 

Fictorine 

Ask me to pardon or forgive? Who has looked 
on me with mercy or kindliness? What was the 
fate of my poor mother? 

Fon SendUngen 
Surely life holds nothing better than this, to for- 
give injuries, and to pardon offenses, however great. 
As for me, I would that I might put myself in your 
place. I would that I might exchange everything 



74 THE JUDGE 

with you, my past with yours, my experiences with 
yours, my joys and loves with yours. I would 
gladly assume all, have suffered all, be weighed 
down with all, rather than stand where I do now. 

Fictorine 

These are empty words. Why do you come here 
to torment me with these strange and inexplicable 
speeches ? 

Fon Sendlingen 

I pray you will pardon me. You cannot think 
me so vain and cruel as to be here without full re- 
gard for your welfare and betterment. I know that 
you arc pure and innocent — pure — like your mother 
— ^who looks down upon you and me — ^who blesses 
you — and — and — 

Fictorine 

What can you have known of her? Encircle me 
as you will with your mist of words, but do not 
touch her. 

Fon Sendlingen 

Listen to me. I have hitherto shrunk from 
making myself entirely clear. I should have known 
that the simple truth is always the best, always 
gives help and life and light. I do know youi 
father. I come from him. I wish to receive from 
you the assurance that you will not be too harsh 
in your view of him, that you will consent to see 
him. His has been no ignoble life; whatever his 
youthful sins, he has sought to undo them; men 
speak of him in high and endearing terms. 

Fictorine 
I have suspected that such was your errand. No, 
I must not sec him. I think that my mother loved 



ACT III 75 

him to the last, even though she spoke bitterly ot 
him to me. It was but once that she did so, and 
then she was overcome by illness and sorrow. She 
asked me not to despise him, but how could I do 
otherwise ? 

Von Sendlingen 

Your mother judged him aright. He left her 
not out of weakness, not out of frivolous disre- 
gard for deep and real relations, but just as little 
out of cold and calculating consideration of worldly 
claims and dignities. He was held by no mere 
external constraint, but by a deeper and more in- 
ward pressure of his bringing up, of his convictions, 
of his view of manhood and the life around 
him, in which he, too, would have to bear his part. 

Victorine 

The part of a rich and petted darling, the part of 
one of those who have everything made easy for 
them, for whom all the rewards are gathered and 
waiting, while we, my mother and I, belong to the 
unhappy poor, who draw no breath without hard- 
ship, whose life is a something permitted us by 
those needing us, and who are to wear the thorny 
crown of shame and destruction at the last. No 
one with a heart ever made this world ; it could only 
have been a God who forgot everything save his 
own pleasure. Just as that man — my father — for- 
sooth, — did, fit scion of nobility and power; — and 
will you explain to me why he never in the slight- 
est degree gave himself any care about his child? 

Von Sendlingen 
He did not know that a child of his was alive. 



76 THE JUDGE 

Victorine 
What is that you say? 

Von Sendlingen 
Furthermore, I can assure you, had the knowledge 
come to him by whatsoever way or accident that 
you, his child, were alive and struggling with the 
bitter fate that here confronts us, he would never 
have rested until he had drawn you to his breast, 
until in his home, in his arms, he had shielded you 
from every conflict with want and wrong and the 
hardness of men. 

Victorine 
{Gloomily.) What have I to do with it? If 
he is filled to the brim with pain, it is but his just 
punishment. What have not we, my mother and I, 
borne, and all through him. 

Von Sendlingen 
Would you not spare him a single pang? 

Victorine 
I do not know how to answer you. I wish no 
one any ill, I have not sunk so low as that, not even 
Marianna, who has lied about me at this time when 
my life is at stake. If he is such a man as you say 
that he is, he must now be filled with a remorse at 
which I shudder; yet can his agony be no greater 
than mine, and my fault is not measurable with his, 
nor does he repent with the sacrifice of his life and 
his honor. 

Von Sendlingen 
Perchance with both. 

Victorine 
I will not hear it! It does not concern me! 
I will not have you rob me of my feeling against 



ACT III 77 

that man! You ask me to fail in justice to my 
mother; he suffers as he ought, and that is enough! 
Von Sendlingen 
You are right, and you are just, above all, just! 
You are capable of largeness of spirit, you above all 
women, you can forgive this worst of sinners and 
criminals. 

Victorine 
Did he send you to make this request for him ? 

Von Sendlingen 
Will you deny him even that poor privilege? 

Victorine 
I deny him nothing; yet he might have been sure 
that I should feel thus toward him. 

Von Sendlingen 
He did not think that you would be so hard to 
him. 

Victorine 
Did he not? He thinks, perhaps, that all will be 
forgiven him because he wishes to overwhelm the 
guilty, the condemned woman, with the honor of a 
visit. This is the noble, the deep-feeling man! 

Von Sendlingen 
You wrong him! You wrong him! 

Victorine 

I will not see him, I cannot see him ! Keep him 
away from me! 

Von Sendlingen 
I cannot promise that. 

Victorine 
This too I must bear! It is too much! I can- 
not hear another word! 



78 THE JUDGE 

Von Sendlingen 

His life, his reason, depends upon it! 
Victorine 

I wish nobody's death, I wish nobody's harm! 
I would have him live if he yet cares to live! I 
forgive him ! Almighty God in Heaven, strengthen 
me,, I forgive him, but I cannot see him! 
Von Sendlingen 

There is one privilege that you can grant him. 
You can let him link his fate with yours. You can 
let him enter into the feelings of your heart, and 
live with you the breath which you draw. You 
can let him make the sacrifice which he longs to 
make, to throw off the adventitious garb of worldly 
successes which he is clothed withal, and take upon 
himself the toil which is too much for you, the toil 
of restoring to you all of which you have been de- 
prived, and which belongs to you of right, to take 
upon himself a father's real task, the building 
around you of a world which will enable you to 
think and act as you ought, to overthrow the hos- 
tility which has met you from the first, and to 
assure to you the attainment of what your young 
heart sees and seeks. Grant him this, Victorine. 

Victorine 

I want for nothing. I am prepared for the 
death that is so close at hand. 

Von Sendlingen 

If that dark hour should come, his place is at your 

side, his hand should be in yours; his right is to 

share every gloom which belongs to your peril, and 

every hope which accompanies your possible rescue. 



ACT III 79 

Victortne 
How you disturb and trouble me ! Perhaps what 
you wish is best. Of what avail are any doubts 
or tumults of mine, the last glimmerings of thoughts 
and emotions which fleet through the soul of a con- 
demned girl? I have been very weak and yielding, 
and my strength cannot resist any more; wronged 
as I and mine have been, trampled into the dust as 
all our most precious longings have been, miserable 
as has been the cup which the world has given 
us to drink, I would not add to the horror of my 
existence by any needless harshness even to him. 
Let it be as you ask. 

Von Sendlingen 
God be thanked for that, and you, my child, a 
thousand times, you, my child, my child — 

Victortne 
What is this thought that gleams through my 
brain — you, you — 

Von Sendlingen 
Yes, Victorine, I am your — 

Victorine 
Father? Father? 

Von Sendlingen 
Come to me, my daughter, let me clasp you in 
these arms that have so hungered to hold you. Let 
my heart beating against your heart, know itself 
permitted to work for and help you, Victorine. 

Victorine 
Shelter and guardianship I need very much from 
the world, from myself, from my memories, from 
my — father? father? 



8o THE JUDGE 

Von Sendlingen 

You are mine now as you should have been 
always? 

Victorine 

Whatever comes will find me strong to face and 
endure it. Take comfort to yourself, but, believe 
me, I say it with what is almost my dying breath, 
I am innocent except for the misery of having 
loved too much. 

Von Sendlingen 

I know it, my child. It is the cruel law, that, 
having been brought into existence to secure the 
right, through its own weakness, brings to pass the 
bitterest wrong. But it shall not do it. I will 
save you though I tear the fabric of the law in 
pieces with these very hands. My child, my daugh- 
ter. 

Victorine 

Father. 

{She sinks into his outstretched arms. He pas- 
sionately covers her face, her neck, her hair with 
kisses.) 

Von Sendlingen 

(Calls,) Brigitta — Brigitta. (Brigitta enters.) 
There you are now. Go take my daughter away. 
I shall not have her long. Prepare her for every- 
thing. (Embraces Victorine.) There is much to be 
told you and to be arranged. Come back soon, 
Brigitta. (Victorine and Brigitta pass out. The 
Judge silently paces back and forth. In a few mo- 
ments, Brigitta returns.) 

Brigitta 

There is no one in the house but ourselves. 



ACT III 81 

Von Sendlingen 
I must act then quickly. What a thing is this 
for me to do, Brigitta? 

Brigitta 
All will come out right. You are acting for the 
best, as always. She is brave and firm; she is 
resting now, and seems stronger than I supposed. 
Everything will go well. 

Von Sendlingen 
I hope so, — but with me. {A knock, Brigitta 
passes out and returns with Berger.) 

Berger 
It has stopped raining at last. You look a lit- 
tle white, Brigitta. I cannot wonder at that. The 
life of so many years is broken, and changes arc 
always trying. {Brigitta bows to him and leaves,) 
You are quite ready for the evening, dear friend, I 
hope. I shall expect you to stand firm tonight as 
you have done so long, and then we will look out 
for the future. 

Von Sendlingen 
I am thinking of that future. 

Berger 
How much you have to endure, Victor, and how 
nobly you are doing it. 

Von Sendlingen 
Could a more unfortunate complication be 
imagined, George? Could a more diabolic fate be 
invented against any man? And she is innocent, 
Marianna Brandes perjured herself. 

Berger 
Yes, the death penalty could only have been 
brought about by a Judge so narrow as Von Wern- 
er. Then the uproar among the people, the dread 



82 THE JUDGE 

of possible revolutionary excesses among them, steels 
the heart of the Minister of Justice, and the final 
appeal is denied save for the granting of a few 
months' reprieve to give the sick girl a little more 
strength. 

Von Sendlingen 

That seems a piteous mockery, docs it not? The 
mere prolongation of her agony; it may turn out 
very different from the Minister's expectations. In 
spite of all care of the doctor and myself, she gains 
very slowly, and she may slip through our grasp 
at any moment. 

Berger 

A consummation, perhaps, devoutly to be prayed 
for. 

Von Sendlingen 

No, that would be the last verge of cruelty; an 
innocent woman should be saved. 

Berger 
Fortunately there is yet time. The emperor — 

Von Sendlingen 
The emperor? Do you forget the terrible affair 
of the attempted assassination? What can be done 
with the Emperor in his wounded and angered con> 
dition? That ruffian's assault upon him seemed to 
me like a bolt of vengeance from the very heavens. 
Just as I was on the point of making a personal 
appeal, was going to tell him all, and intercede for 
her and for me, that villain wounds him as he is 
riding through the street. That takes away the last 
hope. Everything has been tried and ever3rwhere 
the same inexpugnable opposition confronts us. Now 
my term of office here is ended and I must be away 



ACT III 83 

to another city. It is thus that one is forced to 
the last desperate act. 

(J knock. B?'igitta crosses the roonij and Dern- 
egg and Von Werner enter, Brigitta passes out 
again as she had come in.) 

Von Werner 

{He is elaborately dressed. He is dignified to 
the point of absurdity. He speaks with the most 
pompous of exaggerations.) It has cleared up rapid- 
ly, and, while the streets are rather muddy, yet 
nothing now will interfere with the several torch- 
light processions. We left one marshalling a short 
distance below. ( Goes to a glass to adjust his neck- 
tie.) 

Dernegg 

The town has never been so stirred to its depths. 
You can look upon the approval of your life In 
this community as one of the rewards, perhaps, to 
be expected, but none the less gratifying when it 
comes. We lose the best Judge in all Austria; 
but your crowning career is opening to you; your 
promotion is another step on the way, not a long 
one, to the highest place of all. 

Von Sendlingen 

You are both of you very kind as is also my good 
Berger to come so early, and give me the honor of 
your company to the hotel, where the processions 
are to be viewed, and afterward the banquet occurs. 
And now I recall another matter, George, did you 
engage a room for me? I shall need some change 
of dress after the banquet, if I take the late train 
for Vienna. 



84 THE JUDGE 

Berger 
All has been seen to ; I have engaged for you the 
small room which you have had before. The ho- 
telkeeper told me that it was the one which you 
always used. It has a door opening on an inner 
staircase and a hallway but little traversed, so that 
you can make your final escape to your carriage with- 
out encountering any interruptions. 
Von Sendlingen 

Yes, that is right. There are always on these 
occasions so many farewells to be said, that one 
never knows when he can tear himself loose from 
them, and I must on no account fail to make my 
train tonight. 

Berger 

Is it not about time for us to go? 
Dernegg 

There is no need of haste. The Judge looks 
tired, and not very well. Surely you have recov- 
ered your health fully? 

Von Sendlingen 

I am afraid not, and I imagine that I never shall. 
The trouble is a serious one. The physicians seem 
little able to reach it, and I allow for that reason 
no new ambitions to enter my mind; who knows 
when the end may come? It is nearer than any of 
us thinks. 

{Shouts are heard outside gradually coming near- 
er.) 

Dernegg 

That is the band of workingmen, headed by John 
Novyrok; they are coming here, I believe. They 
wish to make a presentation to the Baron. 



ACT III 85 

Dernegs 
Prepare yourself for their laudations. 
{There is a knock. Brigitta appears. After a 
pause Novyrok comes with a committee of working- 
men. Franz also enters and stands at one side with 
Brigitta. Novyrok advances: he places on the ta- 
ble a loving cup,) 

Von Sendlingen 

You are most welcome, friends. This evening 
would have been lacking in one of its most essential 
features to me, if I had not met you here. I have 
endeavored to understand the point of view from 
which you see things, and I have sympathized with 
many of your hopes and plans. The difficulties in 
the way are serious and manifold, but the light of 
the new and noble shines clearly upon you from 
below the horizon. The organizations of states and 
societies have set too much value upon external and 
adventitious matters of wealth and descent. They 
will feel the gradual breath and life of regeneration 
all through them, and they will give permanent 
effect to that alone, which is of genuine worth — the 
achievements of the high and just human will. From 
that standpoint all artificial distinctions fall away, 
and every man is honorable, and every man is the 
whole of life, and the whole commonwealth. Wc 
must, however, have no violence, we must let the 
God of History take his own time, wc must watch 
for the hints which He gives, and set out feeble 
hands to His work, and we may be sure that the 
end will surpass all human expectations and imag- 
inings. 



86 THE JUDGE 

Novyrok 

We are here to give our thanks to you who have 
been to us a friend in so many ways. The good 
God above, the God of History, as you finely call 
him, seems sometimes to us to have fallen asleep, and 
no doubt the work he has to do is very wearing, and 
he needs rest like others, who are always trying 
to do good, and are so often failing; yet I do not 
entirely agree with my friends, who find unhappi- 
ness to be the lot of the poor, and a great joy to be 
the lot of the rich. Each has his own sort of mis- 
ery, and neither is on the road that leads to what 
is worth most for all. We must act for ourselves, 
for the days when the powers above stood ready to 
help have gone forever. Yet you have been a helper 
to us, you have not feared to speak out what was in 
your heart, you have taken us by the hand, and 
brought us out of many and severe trials. So now 
we are here to give our thanks for your many ser- 
vices to us. 

Von Sendlingen 

What has been done, good friends, has been too 
little to bring about much change in your condition 
for the better, and such improvement is so much to 
be sought. 

Novyrok 

(Holding up the loving cup.) You see this 
vessel. If you think that it is made of silver, you 
are greatly mistaken. It is covered only with a thin 
wash that will wear off in a very short time. It 
has cost very little indeed, and even then, perhaps, 
we have paid more for it than it is worth; but this 
small sum has been so divided that three hundred 



ACT III 87 

workingmen have united in paying it, and express 
through this slight thing their feelings toward you. 
If it may be as they wish, the bread which you will 
eat in the future will be sweetened by the thought 
of the many to whom your life has given hope and 
help, and the savor that will be all through your 
meals will be the memory, that many and many 
poor and troubled workmen, at morn or noon oi 
night, when they gather round their tables, scantily 
served though they be, will have in their minds, 
and arouse in the hearts of their wives and children, 
the thought that, whoever has deserted them, the 
angels and the sleeping God, you have ever been 
true and just to them. 

Von Sendlingen 

George, this is too much. 

( Von Werner steps forward, rubs his hands, and 
gazes on the workingmen with immense sternness. 
Von Sendlingen gently puts him aside.) 

Novyrok 
We know very well what we shall ask for you 
in return for what you have done for us. A happy 
life and a glad heart to you and to all who are deai 
to you. Yet wishes are but weak, and we can do 
nothing in your behalf although each of us would 
give of his blood and breath to further you, and 
prayers we find receive answers only slowly. There- 
fore, we can but say: When you are tried, and at 
odds with the world, think of us and your soul 
will grow lighter. You will say to yourself : I have 
lifted these people out of their sorrow, I have borne 
for them as much of their burden as I could; and 
your eyes will grow clearer, and your sun will cast 



88 THE JUDGE 

off the clouds that threaten to overwhelm it. For 
I believe that this is the truest comfort that anyone 
can have in this poor and mistaken earth. Thanks 
from us all, for you are good and honorable, what 
you do is well done, and wrong cannot touch you. 
Thanks again and again. 

Fon Sendlingen 

{Grasping him by the hand.) Blessings upon 
you and all who toil and look for the harvest thai 
is surely coming. I receive your cup and shall al- 
ways prize it among my chief possessions, and when 
I drink from it with my friends we shall think of 
you and how to help you. ( The workingmen press 
around Von Sendlingen and shake hands with him 
as they pass out.) 

Von Sendlingen 

Get my coat, Franz. 

So, dear Franz, you are to have a short 
rest too. You will go tonight to your friends 
in the country. Well, I have told you all 
that is necessary; and in about ten days you 
return. Be sure you take every care of your- 
self, and think of nothing except how you are free 
from every obligation save the one to be good to 
yourself. For a few days, my dear fellow, goodby. 
You have been so near to me for so many years 
that I never know how I can get on without you 
when I am away from you. Goodby. And you 
too, Brigitta. 

(Shakes hands with both. The gentlemen go 
out.) 

Brigitta 

Every one is doing his best to honor him. The 
great processions, the banquet, the speeches, the pre- 



ACT III 89 

sentatlon of this picture, the letters from all over 
the country, show the esteem in which he is held. 
The good and much-suffering man. 

Franz 

Now there is something that I ought to know. 
I have been his man for over twenty years, and he 
talks about everything with me, in the way I like. 
This time, though, he says nothing. He is strange 
and tired. He eats nothing at all ; he sits in his 
chair and thinks and thinks; when I speak to him, 
he wakes up out of a sleep, as it were. He 
wanders around at night. Once I saw him in the 
yard looking for the old door in the wall next the 
prison. It was past twelve o'clock and the snow 
was falling. I was ready for him. I thought of 
the time Mr. Berger brought him home half-dead 
and delirious. Tell me, Brigitta, what is it anyhow? 

Brigitta 

You are the best of men, Franz, and you will 
have a good time in the country. Tonight you 
know the Baron goes to Vienna on business after 
the great banquet. You have a key to the house so 
that you can get in when you return. 

Franz 

Yes, so it goes. Well, I see that I am to be left 
out for this time. It hurts me after long service 
to be treated so. I must be on my way. May all 
be well with him. You, too, are going away on 
business of your own. I shall not be here for a long 
time. Or are you never coming back? Goodby, 
Brigitta. 

Brigitta 

Goodby, Franz. It will be a long time before 
I shall see you again. Every day we have been 



90 THE JUDGE 

together for all these years, and now we are to 
separate. Think well of us all, dear Franz. We 
have understood your devotion and loved you. {He 
gets as far as the door; she calls hirrij and takes both 
his hands.) Goodby, Franz, goodby. {Franz leaves. 
She seats herself. A double knock — evidently a 
signal previously agreed on.) So, he has come. 
{She hastens from the room, and returns in a mo- 
ment with Count Henry.) 

Count Henry 

Everything is prepared and in order. Seine 
streets away I have left the carriage in an obscure 
place. The night is gloomy, and the tumult in the 
principal streets is all in our favor. How does she 
bear it? Has she gained strength of late? 

Brigitta 

She is of the nature that meets an emergency with 
the power of dealing with it that it calls for. She is 
frail, however, and, when we are far away, she will 
be in some danger of a relapse. I would we were 
already on the broad rolling ocean. 

Count Henry 
You will be as a mother to her, and it cannot be 
that after so much suffering and hardship, after such 
terrible atonement, the heavens will not relent and 
give us some hours of tranquility; but bring her to 
me. Let me see her and hear her speak. Is every- 
thing ready for the departure? 

Brigitta 

What preparations we have been able to make 
are over. The few belongings that we can take with 
us are below, where we can lay easy hands on 



ACT III 91 

them. The Baron has arranged affairs so that he 
can excuse himself from the banquet early — he is 
very ill. He goes to his private room, whence he 
can slip away unseen, and he will be with us. No 
one will miss him. He returns to the banquet, and 
from thence to Vienna by the late train. 
Count Henry 

Bring her at once, Brigitta, bring her to me. (She 
passes out and returns in a few moments. Vic- 
torine walks behind her slomly and gravely. She 
is in elegant traveling attire.) 

Brigitta 

I have some last things to arrange below, and will 
look out besides for the Baron. All your wraps and 
mine, Victorine, are also there. {Passes.) 
Count Henry 

The hour has come at last when we can clasp 
hands, and feel that no power on earth or in heaven 
can sunder us again. You look grave and strange; 
see, I am awaking out of a slumber, as it were, that 
has seemed like death. Outside it is yet winter, but 
it will not be long before milder winds and clearing 
skies will call down into the earth, and the life 
teeming there will spring up anew to greet the in- 
creasing sunlight. For us, also, Victorine, begins 
a new life, a new experience, a new joy. 

Victorine 

I cannot yet wholly free myself from the chill 
and the gloom wherein I have been dwelling. I 
seem like one riding in the night along the verge of 
a viewless precipice; down below I hear the hoarse 
voice of the stream dashing over the rocks and steeps ; 
behind me I perceive I know not what of danger, 



92 THE JUDGE 

eager to pluck me back into the grief and doom. I 
am strong, Henry, and fear can never again come 
near me — how should I fear after all that I have 
borne — but yet I would that my part in this play 
were well over. 

Count Henry 
Think of the new life that waits in a new land, 
under a new and warmer sun, with new friends. 
Once out of the shadow of these horrible walls, and 
far away from the misjudging people, we can clasp 
hands more firmly than we do now, look deeper 
each into the other's eyes, and see opening before us 
the paths of happiness. 

Victorine 
But the past that will haunt me, the dread in 
which I may have to live, the joyousness that seems 
a dark flower plucked from the grave, and embody 
ing in strangeness of form and hue so many tears 
and sobs and sins. 

Count Henry 

Throw away these evil fancies and bewilderments. 
I shall be at your side. Oh, forgive me that I ap- 
peared even for a moment to have been led away 
from you. You will trust me, for every wrong 
you have endured I will see that a delight comes 
to fill up its place, for every deed which they say 
you have done and call strange and mysterious I 
will take it upon me to make requital. The woman 
shall not stand alone as the vain and senseless world 
has hitherto placed her; in the new world we begin 
the new life; in joyance and certitude the man be- 
side the woman who loves him, in night and gloom 
the man bearing the burden with her, toiling up the 



ACT III 93 

steep with her, catching from the glow that shines 
first in her eyes the glory re-arisen and replenish- 
ing the gladdening air and answering vault of the 
heavens. 

Victorine 
My lover and my husband! 

Count Henry 
We shall have joy, bliss, heaven. 

Victortne 
No, we shall have calm, duty, forgiveness. Our 
bond is not wholly like that of others; at least not 
until the benediction of a nobler inner life, and 
generous deeds to all mankind, comes to us with 
its healing out of the skies. We are to be to each 
other guides to strength and purity, we must not 
ask that our steps shall be along walks bordered 
with flowers, we must not demand that the air shall 
be filled with perfumes for our delight; our meai 
and drink shall be patience and unwearied well- 
doing; it shall be ours to hunt out the oppressed 
and misguided, to bring solace where the day wears 
no smile, to join our small power to the force which 
is making man the image and the vessel of the 
all-renovating love. Oh we shall not ask for joy 
nor ecstasy, but for whatever comes with the fact 
that our hearts are pure and that our hands are 
held forth to all who may need them. 

Count Henry 
I shall be most myself when I am with you 
in the doing of any act, however small, that is per- 
meated with this spirit which is your inmost heart 
and hope. (Folds her in his arms. The bell rings 
twice sharply and distinctly.) 



94 THE JUDGE 

Brigitfa 
{Entering.) He has returned. {Exit and in a 
moment Von Sendlingen appears with her,) 

Von Sendlingen 
You are together at last. {Takes Count Henry 
by the hand, and then embraces Victorine,) I 
have you only for so short a time, my daughter; 
I deserved better of the world. I should have had 
the happiness of bringing you up, of treasuring your 
early laughter, and your quaint baby fears; and 
now that you have come to me through so much 
sorrow, I must give you up; but you will think of 
me always, and well. 

Victorine 
Dear father, it cannot be long before you will 
be with us? 

Von Sendlingen 

I hope not, child. I shall resign that new post. 
I want no more honors and dignities. I want only 
rest and forgiveness. But time hastens — 
Count Henry 

Do not allow yourself to be troubled for us, 
father, my own precautions have been adequate. 
We shall be rich in that far land, that noble land 
in the southern seas. 

Von Sendlingen 
And you, Brigitta, you shall not suffer for the 
great sacrifice which you make for mine and mc. 
Good Brigitta, it is hard to leave behind all the 
associations which must be so much to you, and 
I can never thank you enough. You have been a 
noble friend to us all. Be assured that no harm can 
come to you for what you are doing, and if our best 



ACT in 95 

love and care can repay you, they shall be yours in 
stintless abundance. 

Brigitta 
I ask for nothing. I have tried to do w^hat I 
thought right. I feel calm and strong, and the fu- 
ture does not trouble me. 

Fon Sendltngen 
And you, Count Henry, can I trust my child to 
you? 

Count Henry 

I will care for her as I do for my own soul. 
Von Sendltngen 

See, I have this ring. It mv^s given to me by 
your mother, Victorine. It shall be a symbol of 
union between you, it shall forever heal the breach 
which has brought such sorrow and disaster into 
so many lives. {He gives it to Count Henry, who 
in his turn places it on Victorine's finger. They 
stand with clasped hands.) You have been sorely 
tried, but may the years bring to you that true en- 
joyment which comes from deep-hearted allegiance 
to the right, to man, and to God. So all is done. 
And now we have small time for parting words. 
Good-by, Brigitta, best and truest of friends. ( They 
shake hands. Brigitta bursts into tears and goes 
out.) My son, you have shown yourself a man, 
whose like I see not anywhere. Be strong in the 
future as in the past. My Victorine, I shall hear 
from you soon. There, do not weep. These eyes 
have shed too many tears already. I can hardly bear 
to let you go, but it must be. I shall hear from you 
soon. There, take her, Henry. One more em- 
brace. God protect both of you, farewell, farewell. 



96 THE JUDGE 

( They pass out, and after a short pause the shutting 
of the door is heard. He falls into a chair. The 
rest is in the manner of a person speaking to himself 
in a half delirium.) That is over. My heart hurts 
terribly. Great God, what is this strange feeling 
that comes over me now? {He sinks back half- 
fainting.) No, I must arouse myself, or all will 
be lost. So, I am getting better, I feel relieved. 
{Stands with some difficulty.) I will not fail now, 
I must return to the banquet. {Masters himself 
with great effort.) Now I can go. {Pauses be- 
fore the portrait.) The perfect Judge — what am I 
now? I shall atone, I shall atone. They shall re- 
member not what I am, but what I was, what I 
ought to be! {He prepares to put out the lights. 
The cries are heard again: *'Long live the just 
Judge! The perject Judge/* He trembles and 
shrinks together with agony.) 

The Curtain Falls 



ACT IV 

SCENE. — Library of Von Sendlingen. He comeS 
in a dressing gown, and seats himself. He looks 
very ill, feeble and old. Two weeks have elapsed. 

Franz 

{Enters and places a letter on the table.) 
Do you need me? 

Von Sendlingen 
( Tearing open the envelope and reading raven- 
ously.) No, not at present. {A knock. Franz 
passes out. Berger enters.) 

Berger 
You are stronger today, Victor, I see it in youi 
eyes. 

Von Sendlingen 
No, you are mistaken ; I shall never be any better. 
Pray hand me that taper. Now light it for me. 
So, that is well. {He holds the letter in the flame, 
and watches it consume with eager eyes. Berger 
looks upon him with inexpressible wonder and 
grief. ) 

Berger 
You appear very anxious to dispose of that trifle. 

Von Sendlingen 
The papers accumulate so. I have been burning 
letters and dispatches ever since I returned. What 
a rubbish heap the past builds up around us! Every 
once in awhile we must take an account of stock, 
and dispose of the refuse in some way. This letter 

97 



9^ THE JUDGE 

tells me only that all is well, that a work in which 
I have been engaged has succeeded, that the wrong 
will be undone, that those who need it will be made 
happy at last. 

Berger 

Will you not learn to let the dead past bury its 
dead? And yet it confronts us just now with more 
than its usual vigor. Has any information arrived? 
Is there any light on the unaccountable disappear- 
ance? 

Von Sendlingen 

She has vanished as though she had never been. 
I am left all alone again, even my agony does not 
find it desirable to house with me. I am strangely 
free from pain or anxiety. But I shall pass soon, 
and I am not eager to linger much longer. 

Berger 

Tut, tut! You expect Von Werner this morn- 
ing? He is wild with grief, such as he can feel, 
over the inauspicious opening of his term of office. 
Von Sendlingen 

Yes, he ought to be here now. I am sorry for 
him. The strange man, whose limitations are so 
apparent, and who in so much is but a half-develop- 
ed child. I should expect him to wail and even tear 
his hair, but he will not suffer much longer, and it 
is to be hoped that he will through this untoward 
matter gain a little wisdom, which will be all the 
better for others and for him. 

Berger 

Victor, you terrify me. I am torn by doubts 
and agitations that I dare not express even to my- 
self. Victor, if the ordeal through which you have 
been has — 



Act IV 9$ 

Fon Sendlingen 
No, George, be seated again, and do not peer into 
the outer darkness which only a few ghosts of re- 
flected lamplight illumine. If ever man had a 
friend, true, tried, loving, sacrificing, I have had 
him in you. Trust me to the end, it will not be 
long. {A knock. Von Werner enters. He looks 
forlorn and amazed. He maintains his extravagant 
r.ianner with difficulty; every now and then he 
breaks down and almost whimpers, then recovers 
himstlf suddenly, and gazes about to see if anyone 
has observed him.) Ah, Von Werner, you are come 
just in the nick of time; Berger is here. The pres- 
ence of both of you is especially welcome this morn- 
ing; but where is Dernegg? 

Von Werner 
Important business took him away from the city. 
(Pauses and stares.) I hope you are able to stand 
the rigor of an interview? {Whimpers.) 
Von Sendlingen 
Vienna does not agree with us old fellows any 
more. Time was when we could hold our own with 
anybody, but it is past. 

Berger 
We shall see you Minister of Justice yet. 
Von Werner 

{With a terrified solemnity.) You are aware 
that the great official has arrived, and that he will 
be here shortly to make some interrogatories, are you 
not? 

Von Sendlingen 

The sooner, the better. 



100 THE JUDGE 

Von Werner 
{Stands up as if he would like to go.) A post- 
ponement to the afternoon is possible, if you will be 
stronger then. 

Von Sendlingen 
No, we will get to the end this morning. 

Berger 
I should advise this course. 

Von Werner 
{Rises and strides about, groans and almost 
weeps.) Thanks, thanks. It is a terrible misfor- 
tune with which I assume the office so honored by 
you. What can I do about it? You will stand by 
me, and keep any and every reflection from my 
good name? What could I do about the escape? 
{Lays hand on Von Sendlingen.) 

Von Sendlingen 
Nothing, my good friend; console yourself; who 
could for a moment blame you? It will all be 
made plain in due time, be patient. {A knock. 
Franz ushers in the Minister of Justice. The Min- 
ister seats himself.) 

Minister 
It is a most calamitous circumstance which comes 
under my observation here. Have you any ex- 
planations to offer? 

Von Werner 

{Eagerly and with sudden and ludicrous assump- 
tion of his old manner.) None. The whole affaii 
verges on the miraculous. The doors seem to have 
been opened from within, they were locked again 
after the fugitive had released herself, and the final 
flight must have been taken throught a small postern 



ACT IV loi 

In an inner wall. She could hence easily reach the 
street, and this house was wholly deserted on that 
night, It being the occasion of a banquet to the 
Baron. It is a riddle to which no answer is forth- 
coming. 

Minister 

Have the necessary precautions been taken to 
secure the prisoner in case of her discovery? 

Fon Werner 

{With increasing vigor and many gestures,) All 
that is possible has been done, but she is lost to view 
as if she had never been. This beginning of my 
incumbency is a terribly disastrous one. 

Minister 

One cannot discover any failure on your part. 

There is no reason for the overestimating of this 

shadow so far as you are concerned. A properly 

exonerating statement can be made public officially. 

Von Werner 
Thanks, thanks. (Shakes hands with the min- 
ister. Gazes about triumphantly.) 

Minister 

(To Von Sendlingen.) You seem to be in a 
very disturbed condition of health? 

Von Sendlingen 
I do not believe that it will much longer be a 
question of health with me. 

Minister 
A short rest and a sojourn in a warmer climate 
will bring you around. We have too much need 
of you to be willing to think otherwise. 



idi THE JUDGfi 

Von Sendlingen 
You may, perhaps, change your views when you 
hear what I shall take this opportunity of saying 
to you. 

Minister 
Leave it to some better time, you are now too 
much agitated. 

Von Sendlingen 
It must come now, or not at all. 

Minister 
Proceed, then. 

Berger 
This is the atonement, the expiation. I under- 
stand it all. 

Von Sendlingen 
I shall come to the heart of my communication 
at once. I do not wish that this upright and honor- 
able man {to Von Werner ivho nods and bows and 
smiles vacantly) should know another moment of 
anxiety. It is of Victorine Lippert and her mys- 
terious disappearance that I wish to speak. 
Von Werner 
{With excitement, stands and crosses his hands 
on his breast.) I always felt that you would do 
for me all that lay in your power. 

Minister 
Proceed. There may be other things of equal con- 
sequence with your vindication. Von Werner. 
{Von Werner subsides rapidly.) 

Von Sendlingen 
In the first place I must state that the unhappy 
girl was my own daughter, and that her release 
from prison was effected by me. I sent her away 
in the care of my housekeeper, Brigitta. 



ACT IV 103 

All 
Your daughter, you set her free, you obtained her 
release — the jailer! the jailer! 

Von Sendlingen 
No, no, the jailer is as innocent as any one of 
you. I was the only one who effected this crime. 
I am at your disposal. I await the consequences of 
my confession. 

Minister 
You are not well, you are mad! 

Von Sendlingen 
No I am clearer in my intelligence than ever I 
was. I see with the unclouded sense of a dying man, 
I am a criminal and I deliver myself up to justice. 

Berger 
Victor I am here at your side. You bewilder me, 
but I shall always be near you in your time of trial. 
Von Sendlingen 
Best of friends! 

Minister 
That girl your daughter! 

Von Sendlingen 
My daughter. The story is a long one, and 
cannot now be told. It may be hereafter. 

Minister 
But why resort to these desperate means? Were 
no others at hand ? 

Von Sendlingen 
None. She was condemned to die. It was a 
judicial murder. She was innocent of the crime 
charged to her. 

Von Werner 
The judges were nearly unanimous. The higher 



I04 THE JUDGE 

court affirmed the decision. The evidence against 
her was conclusive. 

Minister 

You did not preside at the trial ? 
Von Sendlingen 

It was a conflict between my sense of right and 
love of my child, intensified by knowledge of 
her great misfortune. I suppressed my love for 
her with what strength lay in me, and allowed my 
feeling of obligation to the law to gain the victory. 
She was condemned on evidence that I shall be able 
to show was inconclusive. The chief testimony in 
her favor was thrown out on purely technical 
grounds. She is innocent. The thought came to 
me: Against this wrong only another wrong can 
bring to pass the right. 

Minister 

A fearful dilemma. 

Von Sendlingen 

Even so. Yet I came to this conclusion only as 
the last resort of desperation. She was condemned. 
I could free her only by committing a crime. I re- 
volted therefrom. My whole life was arraigned 
against me. Then came to me the awful conflict. 
Should she die or I? Should she pass out of the 
world a criminal or I? The verdict was not alone 
pronounced upon her, it was pronounced upon me. 
Had I the strength to take this criminality upon my- 
self? I shuddered upon this verge for a long time, 
but I felt that, when the limitations put upon a man 
by destiny were too great for him to bear, he had the 
right to free himself by any way whatsoever. I ex- 
ercised this right, gave life to her, and surrender 
myself to the law. 



ACT IV 105 

Minister 
Why were these facts not brought to me before 
in time to prevent all this? 

Fon Sendlingen 
My affiliations with the working people had, as 
you will remember, put me out of favor with your- 
self. 

Minister 
But the emperor — a personal appeal to him? 

Von Sendlingen 
The attack upon his life and his long illness frus- 
trated that, just as I had reached Vienna for that 
very end. 

Minister 
What a tragedy! 

Von Sendlingen 
I am in your hands. 

Minister 
The case demands the deepest consideration. The 
struggle between the love of a father for his child, 
and that reverence for the law which seems to be 
the inmost principle of your nature, must have been 
a most severe one. 

Von Werner 
I must beg that I shall be wholly left out of the 
necessity of any dealing with the case. I am utterly 
broken down with the mere recital, and old friend- 
ship would make me powerless to manage it. {Stares 
around and mutters incoherently.) 

Berger 
I shall take the Baron's defense in hand at once. 

Von Sendlingen 
I do not desire any defense, I absolutely refuse 
all defense. My act in the eyes of the law is wholly 



io6 THE JUDGE 

indefensible, whatever it may be before that higher 
law which so imperfectly and inadequately expresses 
itself in any human institutions. I can only be 
punished, and for punishment I place myself at tht 
disposal of the authorities. Between my child's 
judicial murder, and my own disgrace, I choose the 
latter. 

Minister 

No so simple a settlement is possible. Innumer- 
able considerations have been left out of your view. 
In the passion of the moment, and in the heat of 
your action, you could see but a little way before 
you. For the present you must remain here in 
your own rooms, but under the supervision of the 
new judge. Your word of honor not to transgress 
this regulation is needful. 

Von Sendlingen 

I give it. 

Von Werner 

{PFith staring eyes and real horror.) I beg you, 
I entreat you, leave me out of this strange aflFair. 

Minister 

How can you expect to be left out? Was not 
the girl convicted by you? 

Von Werner 

{His artificial manner collapses gradually and 
visibly. The veneer rubs off. He is terribly ex- 
cited, and his voice breaks into strange cadences. 
Many gestures.) My brain is in a whirl. I have 
always clung to the closest interpretation of the 
law, and, if I have been wrong in this most im- 
portant case of my life, I feel that it will take me 
some time to fathom the thoughts that arc storming 
within mc. 



ACT IV 107 

Minister 
I shall at once make a complete re-investigatlon. 
I shall go over the evidence and the whole pro- 
cedure, and should my conclusions coincide with 
yours, Von Sendlingen, an interview with the Em- 
peror will soon lead you out of this labyrinth. The 
further pursuit of the young woman will cease for 
the present, let this be managed judiciously, inas- 
much as she can doubtless be produced if we shall 
have any need of her. I shall wish to confer with 
you, Berger. 

Berger 
As you please. 

Von Sendlingen 
I am entirely at a loss. I do not apprehend. I 
can allow no infringement of the law. 

Minister 
All shall be duly arranged with every regard to 
the proper interpretation of all legal provisions. 

Von Sendlingen 
I am not then permitted to make that recompense 
which my crime demands? I am peradventure to be 
granted an immunity which a lesser criminal would 
not have received ? Which was indeed denied to my 
daughter? 

Von Werner 
(Wringing his hands.) It is I who am now on 
the rack. 

Minister 
What would you have? 

Von Sendlingen 
The public disgrace and condemnation which I 
deserve. 



io8 THE JUDGE 

Minister 
That must be left with me. 

Von Sendlingen 
You can only decide as I have decided. 

Minister 

No, I must decide very differently. In the pres- 
ent disturbed state of the public mind, the disclosure 
of these affairs would be simply ruinous. The very 
government itself is in danger. The wildness of 
revolution might be upon us. You have not chosen 
an ill time for your demonstration of the existence 
of a law beyond the law. 

Von Sendlingen 

You go too far. I demand the unsaying of that 
last. 

Minister 

As you wish; but the successful composition of 
your difficulties shall be my affair. I am not a 
father distracted with grief over a host of disasters 
and strange eventualities. I am free from passion 
and desperation. I am not fettered by a slavish 
reading of the law. I shall know how to be truly, 
really just. Moreover, the welfare of the common 
wealth is paramount, patriotic attachment to the 
land higher than all; the impeachment of one among 
our foremost judges would be to play with an out- 
burst of destructive forces; so soon upon his eleva- 
tion to a higher position, so upon the heels of the 
attempt against the life of the sovereign ; to the state 
we must sacrifice all, our wealth, our souls, our 
lives, our deepest rectitude, our very belief in justice. 

Von Sendlingen 
I shall refuse all such tampering with the fate 



ACT IV 109 

which I call my own. I shall make the expiation 
which is right and due. I cannot live without mak- 
ing it. My life would be a hell of the most savage 
remorse unless I am given this privilege. 

Minister 

Let some time intervene before you fully make 
up your mind. 

Von Sendlingen 

No, I am aware of what that means. I am put 
to the last and bitterest trial. Even the right to 
atone is taken away from me. The law appears 
most lawless at its very source and fountain. Thus 
is it that the whole life of the time is directed 
toward death and ruin. Thus is it that my child 
is involved in miseries unspeakable, they are not 
hers, they come from the diseased commonwealth. 
I too am drawn into the whirlpool. Some day let 
us hope that misfortunes like my child's will be 
impossible, and disasters like mine cannot occur. I 
shall therefore be my own judge and executioner. 
{He takes a phial from his pocket and attempts to 
place it to his lips.) 

Berger 
What madness is this, Victor? 

Von Werner 
God have mercy upon me! 

Minister 

Seize his arm there. {The struggle is brief, 

the bottle drops to the floor. Von Sendlingen 

falls back in his chair, white and overcome. He 

looks like a dying man. A knock. Franz enters.) 

Franz 
The Countess Riesner desires to see the Minister. 



no THE JUDGE 

Minister 
I can see no one. 

Von Sendlingen 
{Arousing,) Let her come. Is Marianna 
Brandes with her? 

Franz 
She is. {Steps Jo Von Sendlingen.) Can I do 
anything for you? You are fearfully ill. 

Von Sendlingen 
No, not now. I beg of you, let the ladies 
come in. I am strong again. It is important, I 
assure you. 

Minister 
Admit them then. 

Franz 
It will not last long. I will remain near. He is 
dying. I see it clearly. Something has been killing 
him. If they would only go and leave him to me. 
{Exit. After an interval enter the Countess and 
Marianna. The ladies seat themselves.) 

Minister 
To what are we indebted for the honor of this 
visit, madame? 

Countess 
I come especially to see you. I heard a few days 
ago that you were expected. 

Minister 
I hope that I may be of service. 

Countess 
My son, Count Henry, who has for some time 
been giving me the greatest cause for sorrow, has 
disappeared. For two weeks no trace of him is to 
be discovered. 



ACT IV HI 

Minister 

I do not altogether see how I can be of any use 
to you in those premises. 

Countess 

The woman, Victorine Lippert, convicted of a 
heinous crime, has through some unlooked-for fa- 
voritism, succeeded in escaping from her prison. I 
have at last, after a long struggle, succumbed to 
the conviction that he has somewhere met her and 
accompanied her flight. 

Minister 
I remember now, he was the man involved. 

Von Sendlingen 
From information received by me and equally 
trustworthy with that of the Countess I tan say that 
the Count is now the husband of Victorine Lippert. 

Countess 
I feared as much. Unheard of misfortune! For- 
getting his rank, his rights, he has allied himself 
to that false and designing murderess. 

Marianne Brandes 
Do not forget, madame, that to the best, trials 
must come. Lean on a strength superior to your 
own. 

Von Werner 
I am to blame for much of this. I begin to see 
what a terrible error I am in. I must undertake 
the work of my life all over again. {Breaks into 
hoarse noises like sobs.) 

Berger 
Summa lex, summa injuria. The extremity of 
the law is the extremity of injury. The freer and 
larger interpretation is forever the safer. 



112 THE JUDGE 

Countess 
But he must be found, he must be brought back, 
he must not be made to pay with his whole life foi 
a youthful folly, an unimportant event in the career 
of a man of the world. He cannot remain per- 
manently attached to that vulgar girl. I implore 
the aid of every one of you. Let her be brought to 
justice, and my son, after a period of travel, can 
resume the place which is his of right. 

Marianna Brandes 
The saints and heavenly powers will grant it. 

Von Sendlingen 

That may not be so easy as you suppose. The 
chief witness, however, against Victorine is here 
again. A brief interrogation is possible and really 
necessary under the eye of the Minister. Can it not 
be undertaken? 

Countess 

I protest most earnestly. To what end? And 
for what purpose ? The whole action is now closed. 
Poor child! Marianna has had enough of it, and 
so free from blame and mixture with the afEair as 
she is. 

Marianna Brandes 

I am at the disposal of a strength that is greater 
than my own. I am made to be the instrument of 
powers larger than myself. I am content. Meekly 
and humbly will I take up my burden and bear it. 
I am thus disciplined and built into the life that I 
most wish to be. 

Minister 

The suggestion is a noteworthy one, and I scii 
no reason for failing to take it. You will tell the 



ACT IV 113 

truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. 
Berger will be as generous in his questions as he 
can be. 

Countess 
I do not think this should go any further. 1 
protest against it again. Marianna, you need not 
speak. 

Minister 
She will speak. Berger, proceed. 

Berger 
Did you overhear a conversation between the 
Count and Victorine Lippert? 

Marianna Brandes 
Good saints in heaven, do you mean to call mc 
an eavesdropper? 

Berger 
Answer the question. 

Marianna Brandes 
I was behind a curtain, it was purely by an ac- 
cident, they came into the room after I did. 

Berger 
Answer the question. 

Marianna Brandes 
I was behind a curtain, it was purely by an ac- 
cident, they came into the room after I did. 

Berger 
Could you hear what they said? 
Marianna Brandes 
They spoke indistinctly; I heard, — I heard some- 
thing. 

Berger 
Did you hear anything about a marriage? 



114 THE JUDGE 

Marianna Brandes 
The Count did say that he would marry — how 
can I remember? — it was very dark, — but it was 
about a marriage with Victorine. 

Countess 
It is not so, and even if it were, it is immaterial. 
My son could make no promises that were binding 
to such a girl. 

Berger 
Did you hear anything more? 

Marianna Brandes 
I moved just then. Oh, look down upon mc, 
protecting spirits! — the Count came towards me, 
and I left the room — 

Berger 
Hastily? 

Marianna Brandes 
Yes, hastily, quite so. 

Berger 
What sort of a night was it when Victorine left 
the house? 

Marianna Brandes 
Very stormy. I preferred to be indoors. 

Berger 
Did she go willingly? 

Marianna Brandes 
I should have preferred remaining in the house; 
she was forced to go. 

Berger 
You saw her the following morning. 

Marianna Brandes 
Yes, the village woman was there first. 



ACT IV 115 

Berger 
Did you see any marks of violence on the child? 

Marianna Brandes 
I did not dare to take It up. I — I — am not cer- 
tain. The village woman held it. 

Countess 
I will listen no further. This Is an outrage upon 
me and mine. I will appeal to higher authority. 

Minister 
Do not hasten away yet. We are not entirely 
through. 

Berger 
Where is the village woman now? She could not 
be found at the time of the trial. 

Marianna Brandes 
In America. 

Berger 
How did she obtain the means for the journey? 

Marianna Brandes 
That I do not know. 

Berger 
I believe that I am through. 

Von Sendlingen 
(To Berger.) You were never more a friend to 
me than now. 

Von Werner 
{In dull and husky tones.) Why did I not set 
through all this before? 

Countess 
All this signifies nothing to my son or to me. 
This woman Is condemned and has been allowed to 
escape. She must be brought back and my son 
freed from her. 



ii6 THE JUDGE 

Minister 
So be it then. I will take the needed measures, 
but first you must bear in mind one thing. 

Countess 

What may that be? 

Minister 

I do not doubt that the abiding place of Victorine 
Lippert, or I mistake, Victorine Riesner, can be 
readily found. There is no government but will 
extradite under the circumstances; with her, how- 
ever, will return your son — to be arraigned on the 
double charge of deceiving her, and then assisting 
her, a condemned criminal, to escape. Do you wish 
me to speak to the servant? 

Countess 
{After a pause.) I must ask you to excuse me, 
I am a broken hearted woman and mother, re- 
member to act for me and for him. 

Minister 
We shall forget neither, madame. 

Countess 
Come with me, Marianna. 

Marianna 

I beg you will forgive me. I shall go to my 
brother's. I do not believe that my further stay 
in your house would be desirable. I shall send for 
my few things, and ask for my dismissal. The 
angels of the highest heaven keep you in charge, 
dear Countess. 

Countess 

This last pin-prick adds very little to my pain. 
Good morning, gentlemen. (She leaves with calm 
dignity.) 



ACT IV 117 

Marianna Brandes 
You do not wish anything more from me? 

Minister 
No, you may go to your brother's. It is, however, 
only by a sad combination of circumstances that 
you are not dealt with very differently. 

Marianna Brandes 
The guardianship that has always had me in its 
especial care has not deserted me now. {She passes 
out rapidly.) 

Von Werner 
I am chagrined, dismayed, overwhelmed. I pre- 
sent my resignation. {Breaks down completely,) 

Minister 
No, you are the better judge for all you have 
heard and felt today, you will remain. Von Send- 
lingen — 

Von Sendlingen 
They have taken from me everything. They will 
find those wretched ones, and bring them back. I 
shall have failed totally, utterly. 

Minister 
No, you cannot think us so inhumanly cruel. 
Bestir yourself, take heart, all shall be well. 

Von Sendlingen 
But I shall be allowed to take my guilt upon my- 
self finally? 

Minbter 
That remains for further consideration. 

Von Sendlingen 
No, it must be, it shall be, I demand it as 
my right, I will have it so, I will proclaim it 
everywhere. 



ii8 THE JUDGE 

Minister 
You wish me to proceed to extremities? 

Von Sendlingen 
Do your worst. I — I — . {He screams and falls 
back in his chair.) Franz — George — {Franz rushes 
in.) 

Berger 
Franz, I am afraid that there is nothing more 
that we can do. He is dying. 

Franz 
{Falls at Van Sendlingen s knee.) I have been 
looking for it all the time. What have they done 
to you? What can I do? 

Von Sendlingen 
Nothing at all. It is indeed the end, I did not 
think it would be so soon. After all, no man can 
do more. I die for them and the right, but the 
terrible cloud is lifted, the bondage in which three 
generations have been held is broken, they are free 
again. 

Minister 
Yes, they are free again. 

Von Sendlingen 
I can die content, then. I am not wholly dis- 
honored, I thought it would be otherwise, but no 
doubt this is best. You will look after everything, 
George. All is prepared for them, and for you, 
Franz. So it is over — good night — goodby. {He 
dies.) 

Franz 
My master! 

Von Werner 
I shall begin my life anew, illumined by the light 
of this sacrifice. 



ACT IV 119 

Berger 
Good friend, good Judge, farev/ell. This was a 
man, and heaven is more heaven because he enters 
it. 

Minister 
Truth is not less truth, and justice is not less 
justice, because mercy and love shine through them 
with a radiance that is divine. 

The Curtain Falls 
The End 



AMERICAN DRAMATISTS SERIES 



A series of plays by contemporary American aramatists; 
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THE FL.OWEB SHOP. By Marion Craigr-Wentworth 

Play in three acts, dealing with woman's suffrage. 

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A drama of to-day in four acts. 

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An historical drama of the time of Napoleon, in four acts 
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Five one-act plays: Thirst, The Webb, Warnings, Fog, 
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A farce in two acts. 

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A drama of to-day in three acts. 

A MAN'S WORIjD. By Rachel Crothers 

Miss Crothers' famous play of to-day, in three acts. 

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A dramatic sketch of to-day, in one act. 

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Seven One-act Plays : The Little Mother of the Slums ; 
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A play in four acts, founded on the novel of Karl Emil 
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A fanciful story in dramatic form, which will help chil- 
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Richard G. Badger, Publisher, Boston 



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